'They've all got litre bottles of water, we've got four bottles of beer each in our hands,' - Moneyfields manager Glenn Turnbull on key aspect squad can learn from Gosport Borough following Portsmouth Senior Cup final defeat

Holders Moneys were beaten 4-1 in the competition final by two-divisions higher Boro at Baffins Milton Rovers FC's PMC Stadium last night.

Turnbull had no complaints with the defeat and admitted Southern League Premier South side Gosport were 'levels' above his Wessex League Premier troops throughout the contest.

But the Moneys boss believes his ninth-tier players could also learn a few off-the-field lessons from Shaun Gale's Boro squad.

Turnbull told how while his men were tucking into the post-match lasagne meal on offer and each armed with a handful of beers, Portsmouth Senior Cup winners Gosport took a different approach.

Instead, the Boro players were in the clubhouse with 'litre bottles of water, protein shakes and recovery gels,’ according to the Moneyfields manager.

And while Turnbull fully acknowledges his Moneys players operate at a different standard to their Gosport counterparts, he believes there could be some slight changes required to turn them into 'serious' Wessex Premier contenders moving forward.

‘I think they take it as me digging them out this morning (Moneyfields players), necessarily I'm not, but this sums it up,’ told Tutnbull.

‘They've won the cup (Gosport), we've lost, they're in (the clubhouse; Moneys squad) eating the lasagne, laughing and joking, (with) four bottles of beer each in their hands laughing and joking.

‘Gosport come in, they've all got litre bottles of water, they've all got recovery gels, they're drinking protein shakes - undoubtedly they're all in the gym today they're in the gym doing stretching and recovery sessions.

‘Our lot are putting in the WhatsApp group, ‘I'm a bit stiff this morning, I can't understand why I'm stiff,’ but they don’t prepare properly and don’t look after themselves in recovery. But, again, that's why they're in the league they are and we're where we are.

‘Don't get me wrong, I totally get we're Wessex football which, with all due respect is the very best county and pub players around play Wessex football - I get that. If we want to be serious contenders, that's where we've got to take a little bit of notice of what's going on around us.’

Having gone 2-0 behind following Dan Wooden's early double, Moneys midfielder Callum Glen was then shown a straight red card by referee Jordan McRitchie for dissent with more than eight minutes of the first-half left to play.

Referee McRitchie would also award two penalties in the game - one of which Moneys striker Steve Hutchings converted just past the hour mark - while he dismissed Boro's Billie Busari for his angry reaction to an off-the-ball coming together with Corey Heath just minutes after coming on.

But Turnbull stressed it would be ‘cheap’ of him to point the finger at the official for Moneys' cup defeat.

He added: ‘We talked in the changing rooms about giving ourselves a chance, make sure we're still in it at intervals - 25, 30 minute and half-time - so we get to 20 minutes, I looked at Barto (Paul Barton; assistant manager) and we'd done it, then 22 minutes, boom, goal.

‘It would be cheap of me to blame that (the referee), it wasn't anything to do with that, we'd have got beat whether we played with him or not. I don't genuinely think they (Gosport) got out of second gear.’