US Portsmouth’s huge ‘gamble’ of starting without a recognised goalkeeper and with only 10 players at Shaftesbury pays off

Full-back Luke Richards went in goal for the first 15 minutes of Tuesday’s Wessex League Premier Division fixture in north Dorset.

That was because keeper Charlie Shepherd was late getting to the ground after only finishing his McDonald’s shift in Havant at 6pm!

Despite that unusual beginning, US ran out shock 2-1 winners - only their second league win since the end of last January.

Rather than put an outfield sub in goal, Quirke decided to wait until Shepherd had completed his dash from the south coast.

Richards didn’t even have a pair of proper goalkeeping gloves, just a pair of everyday gloves.

But he only had one save to make despite the hosts piling the early pressure on at Coppice Street.

When Shepherd did arrive and hastily got changed, Richards reverted to his usual outfield role - and provided both assists as a Lamin Jatta double put US into a shock half-time lead.

Though Shaftesbury pulled one back early in the second half, US held out to end a five-game league losing streak - claiming one of the standout results of the current Wessex League campaign as a result.

‘It was a real saga,’ Quirke told The News. ‘It was a big gamble to start with only 10 players.

‘But we don’t pay our players and I didn’t feel it was right to put a sub in goal for 10 or 15 minutes and then take him off after Charlie had turned up, saying ‘thanks for helping out - that’s your night finished’.

‘I wasn’t prepared to do that, after the players had travelled for an hour and 40 minutes. Other managers might say I need to be more brutal, and if you’ve got the budget and you’re paying for their services, that might be the case.

‘It could have gone dramatically different - we were under a real barrage for the first 15 minutes.

‘It was a brilliant win. I’ve said a couple of times recently that our results haven’t matched the performances, but this time we got the result the performance deserved.’

Next up is the unenviable task of trying to end AFC Portchester’s 100 per cent start to the Wessex League season this weekend.

Sam Emeney remains unavailable - after having to work in midweek - while striker Brandon Jewell is also unavailable for the Victory Stadium clash.

Quirke admits the budgets of the two clubs are ‘chalk and cheese’, adding: ‘It will be a tough game without a shadow of a doubt.

‘We’ve got a good togetherness, we’ve got the boost of a good midweek win. Morale is high.

‘It’s a football cliche, but it’s a bit of free hit for us - I don’t think many people around the Wessex scene would expect us to get anything.

‘Let’s hope we can be the best we can be, and that we can be competitive for 90 minutes. Hopefully that will be good enough to get us something.’