‘Disbelief’ as Portsmouth 4ths become first team in the new club’s history to win a Hampshire League championship title

Last summer, the two main clubs on Portsea Island - City of Portsmouth and Portsmouth & Southsea - merged to form one new club.

Portsmouth regularly fielded five men’s and five ladies XIs in 2019/20, but it was the men’s 4ths. Skippered by Wingate, who provided the only champions.

And that was only after a remarkable final day saw them thrash Petersfield 9-0 to pip cross-city rivals US Portsmouth 2nds on goal difference.

Following an anxious wait, hockey officials decided to honour the tables as they stood when the covid-19 pandemic halted all competitive sport in mid-March. That means, for the first time, Portsmouth 4ths will be in Division 7 of the county league in 2020/21.

The 4ths are the club’s development side, and as such contain a handful of youngsters experiencing their first taste of men’s hockey, in addition to some more experienced players. Though the new club were able to field a 5th XI in 2019/20, the coaches kept the 4ths as the development side as they were in the same league as similar development sides at Petersfield and Southampton.

‘We have a new crop of youngsters most years. Normally the ambition is mid-table, just staying up,’ explained Wingate.

‘Every year we have a really bad start, but around halfway the youngsters have got more confidence, a bit more physicality, and they’ve adapted to the pace of the game.

‘We’re normally bottom at Christmas but finish around mid-table.

‘This year we had a flying start, we won our first five games.’

The 4ths’ winning run was ended with a 2-2 draw against Southampton Otters in mid-November followed by their first loss - a 6-2 drubbing at US Portsmouth 2nds - a week later.

That was followed by another five-game winning streak before a 1-1 home draw against the Isle of Wight.

More points were dropped in a 5-5 draw at Bournemouth 5ths in February before Portsmouth lost top spot to US Portsmouth the week after following a 4-1 loss at Otters.

But they moved back level on points with US a week later after a crucial 2-0 victory over their cross-city rivals. A draw or loss would have crowned US champions.

The final day dawned with US top by virtue of a better goal difference - plus 36 compared to Portsmouth’s plus 31.

And by the time the 4ths started their game against Petersfield, Wingate knew that US had only won 2-1 - meaning a six-goal win would give his side the title as a result of scoring more goals throughout the season.

‘The senior players knew what we had to do, but we didn’t tell the younger ones - we didn’t want them knowing the US score. We just wanted them to go out and play.

‘We’d already beaten Petersfield’s development team away, so we knew we could score against them.’

They certainly could, with Portsmouth 6-0 up at the interval and eventually romping to a 9-0 success - giving them the title by virtue of a plus three better goal difference.

‘For five minutes after the game there was silence,’ recalled Wingate. ‘I don’t think we could believe it … there was a lot of disbelief because we thought we had lost our chance a few weeks earlier.’

Wingate scored his first hat-trick for Portsmouth in his fifth season at the club, the last four of which have been spent skippering the development side.

The Petersfield success also provided the team’s youngest ever goalscorer, with Sam Hargreaves netting just six days after his 13th birthday - the youngest age at which anyone can play in the Hampshire adult leagues.

Sam is the younger brother of Jack Hargreaves, the 14-year-old who was the 4ths’ regular goalkeeper in 2019/20.

Three other regulars celebrated their 14th birthdays during the season - Caleb Rowland, Ryan Rochester and Rudy Lambert.

‘We’ve had the youngest squad in the division. Petersfield had some 13/14/15 year-olds and Southampton had a few players who were a year ahead, around 14 or 15,’ said Wingate.

‘Most of the other teams were men’s teams.

‘When we played US away we only had two players over the age of 18 due to injuries. We got a bit bullied that day, but we got stronger as the season went on.

‘We try and integrate a few of the youngsters with a few of the senior players who like to help with some coaching.

‘We have a squad of 13 or 14 and we always try to have six or seven youngsters in the team. We like to try and keep a good balance in the club.’

Portsmouth’s title-winning squad was certainly the classic mix of youth and experience, as Wingate is 36 and Dave Sims and Neil Padfield both in their 50s.

Next season, whenever that starts, the plan will be to ‘promote’ some of the youngsters to 3rd or even 2nd XI hockey.

‘We tend to filter a couple of players up at a time, then they might come back to the development side for a while for some more coaching,’ Wingate explained. ‘Then there will be discussions between the coaches and the captains to see if they can move up to the next team permanently.

‘Harry Hellyer played for the first team this season, he was in the development side just two years ago - he’s only 15.

‘He’s been the main one to come through recently, but there’s several more who might not be too far off come the end of next season.’