Whitewash win for Gosport & Fareham who deliver ideal response to defeat by Havant 2s by beating New Milton & District

Gosport had suffered the bitter blow of going down at home to title rivals Havant 2s the week previous.

But they responded brilliantly, racking up a whitewash 38-0 home triumph over New Milton on Saturday.

It helped second-placed Gosport keep the pressure on leaders Havant 2s, who have won all eight of their Hampshire Premier matches, and Pollard felt it was vitally important for his troops to right the wrongs of their previous outing.

The Gosport head coach said: ‘The guys were all disappointed after last week’s result (defeat to Havant 2s).

‘I think it was a long week, as one of my senior players said that game (against New Milton) could not have come quicker. Had we had the option to play last Sunday I think we would have got straight back at it.

‘We came back and I think it was the right response. We asked a lot of our players (to bounce back) and they performed reasonably well.’

Gosport have now won seven of their opening eight league fixtures and in five of those victories they have done so without conceding a single point.

It was the same against New Milton, with Daniel O'Donoghue's early converted try setting the hosts on the way to victory.

Dominic Holling then went over twice in quick succession as Gosport opened up a 21-0 half time advantage.

Further scores followed after the restart from Alex Jones, Iain Grice and Tim Snowden to ensure the hosts delivered the response following their setback against Havant 2s.

Pollard added: ‘Not conceding is absolutely amazing, but we just need to make sure we’re not conceding every week.

‘That was the key thing which was said at half time, that the zero stayed on the board, we were going to push for the fourth try at 21-0 up at half time, we were going to push for a fourth try but the key focus was making sure we didn’t let them score.’

Gosport are without a game next weekend before returning to action at Ellingham & Ringwood on November 27.