US Portsmouth boss Glenn Turnbull hails his players’ ‘character’ after come-from-behind win keeps them top of Wessex League Division 1

Matt Low's opener on 36 minutes left the Wessex League Division 1 leaders staring at defeat in their final game of 2019.

But Turnbull's troops were not about to surrender their position at the top and second half goals from Tom Jeffes, Liam Kyle and Dec Seiden (penalty) gave them a 3-1 success at Love Lane.

The rousing second half display that Turnbull delighted.

He said: 'We asked for a bit of character at half-time and that’s exactly what the players showed.

'We said at half-time that if we didn’t score early it wasn’t the end of the world.

‘In the first 15 minutes we started really well, but it didn’t come off. We tried to force it.

'Half-time came at a nice time, really.

‘If they’d have got another one, at 2-0 I think it would have been a different story.

‘But to get the early goal in the second half - I thought we dominated them after that.

'This was a game where you can fold and get done three or four-nil, or you can show a bit of character and scrap something out of it.

‘I would have settled for a goal in the 89th minute to win it.

'We're happy with the win.'

USP remain a point clear of Alton, who defeated Verwood 2-1 to record their seventh successive league success.

Mig Dark’s winner against Fawley kept Hythe & Dibden four points adrift of USP, and still with a game in hand.

That makes next Saturday’s USP v Hythe clash at the Victory Stadium all the more important.

The week after, on January 11, USP welcome Alton for another promotion six-pointer and a week later have another home game - this time against fifth-placed Andover New Street.

New Street are seven points adrift of Turnbull’s table-toppers, but they do have three games in hand.