Head coach Mark Pollard assesses Gosport & Fareham's Hampshire Premier title chances following Bognor 2nds defeat... US Portsmouth claim crucial Tottonians 2nds victory

Gosport's last-gasp 19-17 home defeat to Bognor 2nds on Saturday saw them suffer just a second league loss this term.

Yet Pollard's second-placed side, who picked up a losing bonus-point in defeat to Bognor, remain just five points off table-toppers Havant 2nds - who have won all 15 matches to date - with a crunch top-of-the-table trip to Hooks Lane up next on February 12 after a break from action this weekend.

The Gosport & Fareham head coach insisted: ‘We haven’t written anything off at all. We’re still confident, we’ve got to go back and fix the things we didn’t do on Saturday, if we can take those things into the rest of the games for the rest of the season - with no game being a foregone conclusion – but we have to tidy our stuff up.

‘If we can tidy our stuff up then we hold our own destiny in our own hands and that’s hopefully what we should be able to do, but knowing it’s going to be tough to fight for every game week in, week out.’

Alex Duncombe, Daniel Gamblin and Tim Snowden were all sent to the sin-bin as Gosport received three of the five yellow cards shown over the course of the match.

Jimmy Wallis got the hosts’ solitary first-half try as they trailed 12-5 at the break with Bognor claiming two scores.

It looked as though Gosport had completed a turnaround victory with tries from Calum Allardice and Robert MacKinnon putting them 17-12 to the good within seven minutes of the restart.

But Bognor scored a converted try right at the last, either side of both Gamblin and Snowden being sin-binned, as Gosport suffered just a second defeat in 15 games this season.

n Table-toppers US Portsmouth claimed what could prove a crucial Hampshire One win on the road at third-placed Tottonians 2nds.

US Portsmouth, beaten at home by Overton in their previous outing, secured a 25-21 victory to extend the gap between themselves and Tottonians to 10 points, although they have played two matches more.

Fawley took advantage of Tottonians’ slip-up, moving up a place to second behind leaders USP, winning 22-19 at home against Gosport & Fareham 2nds.

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

Get 30 per cent off our sport subscription, which gives readers unlimited access to all our Pompey and grassroots coverage for just 9p a day, by using the promo code JanSports30. The deal expires at midnight on January 31.