US Portsmouth squad all staying loyal in bid to win promotion to top flight of Wessex League in 2021

Boss Glenn Turnbull has revealed every member of his first team squad have told him they are happy to stay and hopefully finish off what they were on course to achieve in 2019/20.

The FA’s controversial decision to null and void the non-league game from step three down has cost USP a likely promotion - what would have been the club’s first since they joined the Wessex League in 2004.

They were 11 points clear of the fifth-placed Wessex Division 1 club - the top four teams would have won promotion - when the season was first halted by Covid-19 and subsequently expunged from the record books.

‘Knowing the players as I do, I wasn’t that surprised,’ said Turnbull.

‘Hopefully that will fend off a few of the swooping hawks that would have been looking at players like Franko (James Franklyn).

‘Everyone has said they’re staying, and Sweeney (striker Andrew Todd) has told his wife he’s going to give it one last throw of the dice.

‘Tom Cain is a good barometer of the squad, and within 10 minutes of the FA’s announcement he was messaging ‘come on, let’s all go again next season.’

‘I had a moment when I thought ‘could I be bothered to do it all again?’

‘The last 10 months were such a slog - especially the couple of months before the season actually started when I was liaising with kit supplies, organising training, ensuring cup competitions had been entered.

‘I can understand where Danny Thompson (Infinity manager) is coming from. They were in an even better position than we were.

‘But the lads have already been posting videos of them out running with their US hats on. They’re all ‘right, let’s do this again.’

The only problem now is that we don’t know when we’re going to start again, we can’t start organising pre-season friendlies or anything.’

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