US Portsmouth boss looking forward to the unknown in next round of historic FA Vase campaign

Dec Seiden makes a pass during US Portsmouth's FA Vase win against Brockenhurst. Pic: Martyn White

His Wessex League Division 1 side will host Cornish club Millbrook in the third round of the FA Vase at The Victory Stadium next Saturday.

After playing three Wessex Premier teams so far - Portchester, Bournemouth Poppies and Brockenhurst - Turnbull admits it will be nice to face opposition he knows little about.

‘That’s the good thing about this competition, playing teams you don’t normally see,’ he said.

James Franklyn celebrates his FA Vase opener against Brockenhurst. Picture: Martyn White.

‘I don’t know too much about them, but even if I did it wouldn’t change the way we’d set up.

‘Some of our training last week was set up to counter the threat of Will Tickle, who’d been a big threat when we played Brockenhurst last time.

‘When we looked at the team sheet, he wasn’t even on the bench!

‘At our level you can worry too much about the opposition.’

Dec Seiden takes on a Brockenhurst opponent during US Portsmouth's FA Vase. Pic: Martyn White.

Turnbull added: ‘Pat (McManus, Brock boss) said beforehand ‘may the best team win’ and I think they did.

‘Their keeper was outstanding and that tells you all you need to know.’

US have now collected five competitive Wessex Premier scalps in 2020/21 and Turnbull said: ‘We feel we’re at that level anyway.

‘I didn’t expect us to beat Portchester, but I was expecting us to beat Poppies and though I said we were the underdogs against Brockenhurst, inwardly I would have been disappointed had we lost.’

James Franklyn battles for possession against Brockenhurst. Pic: Martyn White.

USP collected £900 from the Vase prize pot for beating Brock - their eighth Wessex Premier scalp since August - to raise their winnings so far to £2,450.

They will bank a further £1,125 if they can beat Millbrook, who play at the same step 6 level as them.

‘We gave the players a couple of hundred quid to put towards their end-of-season coffers,’ Turnbull revealed.

‘We’ll do the same again next week.

‘We had a decent-ish crowd down and hopefully we’ll get a few more next week.

‘We had a couple of Pompey season-ticket holders down at the weekend and they said they didn’t realise the standard of football at this level was so good.

‘They said they’ll be back.’