‘Shocking’ Fleetlands loss in Hampshire Premier League gives boss Bessey a Meon Milton cup dilemma

Fleetlands boss Rich Bessey watched his side’s seven-game Hampshire Premier League winning streak come to a crashing halt and confessed: ‘We were shocking.’
Fleetlands  manager Rich Bessey. Picture: Chris MoorhouseFleetlands  manager Rich Bessey. Picture: Chris Moorhouse
Fleetlands manager Rich Bessey. Picture: Chris Moorhouse

Kelvin Robinson gave the Coptermen the lead at home to Stockbridge with his 18th goal of the season, but the visitors hit back to romp home 4-1.

That made it a miserable debut for Havant & Waterlooville Academy goalkeeper Liam Hylett who was behind a new-look defence due to illness and unavailability.

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‘If there is a word worse than ‘awful’ to describe our performance, that’s the one to use,’ said Bessey.

‘This might sound really harsh on the team, but we want to get promoted and we can’t just turn up and expect to win.’

None of Fleetlands’ seven straight wins were against teams currently in the top eight of the Senior Division, and Bessey added: ‘Maybe people thought we were looking like the polished article, but we’re far from it.

‘We weren’t at the races and we need to be at the races against the better teams. Some of our big players didn’t turn up.

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‘It was shocking. As a management team we were bad, we were indecisive. We waited for things to click when the signs were there that it wasn’t going to click.

‘It was a bad day at the office.’

Fleetlands were minus centre half Luke Heard and full backs Phil Archbold and Owen Sims, while Aiden Smallbones remains unavailable. ‘Three of the normal back four were missing, but we still had decent enough players,’ said Bessey.

Prior to the game, the manager was banking on resting some regulars for next weekend’s Portsmouth Senior Cup trip to division lower Meon Milton. But now he’s been handed a dilemma he wasn’t expecting.

Fleetlands are back on Portsea Island again the following Wednesday, for a league date with leaders Moneyfields, and Bessey stated: ‘I might have to go full strength (against Meon) to try and get the winning mentality back.’

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The Coptermen are still in four cups - the Portsmouth Senior, the HPL Cup (where they have also been drawn away to Meon), the Russell Cotes Cup and the Hampshire Trophy.

‘I want a cup run, the chairman (Iain Sellstrom) wants a cup run,’ said Bessey. ‘I’m expecting a run in one of them.’

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