Picture gallery – Portsmouth claim ‘stressful’ and dramatic Hampshire Counties victory over Andover at Rugby Camp

Portsmouth’s yo-yo Hampshire Counties 1 campaign continued with a ‘stressful’ and dramatic home win over Andover.

Trailing 17-7 at the interval, the hosts claimed a 26-20 victory when No 8 Ollie Simpson grabbed his second try with the last play of the afternoon.

Portsmouth’s other two tries had come from openside flanker Anthony Fooks as Matt Wake’s side won their fourth league game in seven attempts.

The previous week Portsmouth had been thrashed 48-0 at Eastleigh, which followed a 50-19 Rugby Camp success against Basingstoke and a 57-21 home loss to table-topping Jersey.

‘It was a stressful win (v Andover),’ remarked Wake. ‘But we probably deserved it in the end.

‘I wasn’t at Eastleigh due to Covid but the skipper Max Clarke said it was the hardest game he’d played for the club.

‘The boys described it as just a poor performance, they made a lot of mistakes and were chasing the game. The pre-match message was just to go out and try to forget it.’

Portsmouth’s scrum half curse continued with debutant Cam McGuigan forced off with an ankle injury.

He is the third scrum half this season to be injured, following Harry Drew’s shoulder injury against Petersfield and Tom Sanderson’s broken finger.

Matt Higgins came on for McGuigan and could keep his place for this weekend’s trip to Winchester.

Wake, meanwhile, felt his side’s best performance of the season so far had come in the defeat to Jersey.

‘It sounds bizarre, but that was the best we’ve played, just because Jersey are so good. We had to work really hard to compete in every aspect.

‘They have the ability to score tries from nowhere, they are that good, but we battled well and tried to stay positive.

‘At 36-21 after 65 minutes, we were effectively still in it.’