A bank holiday Monday visit to PO16 was the fixture given to Moneys for a first away game in four matches. A packed house turned up to witness the last two Wessex Premier League champions battle it out in a Step 4 league contest for the first time.

After the injury to Callum Smart in training last week, emergency signing Ellis Grant was brought into the Moneys squad from Petersfield to bring some men’s senior experience to the backline.

Unfortunately for Grant, the match couldn’t have gone off to much worse of a start. Grant had rolled the ball out to Moneys Captain, Tom Cain, just infront of the goal, but Cain miscontrolled the ball and Alfie Stanley snuck in to steal the ball and tap it into an empty net. Portchester infront inside five minutes.

On thirteen minutes, that start went from bad to worse. A brilliant ball down the attacking right for the hosts, set Zak Willett free. Money’s left back, Ibrahim Busari tried to recover, but Willett turned smartly and finished across the keeper and into the corner for a two goal lead inside fifteen minutes.

At 2-0, Faris Khallouqi did cause some trouble down the left channel as has become his custom. One effort was lashed across the face of goal, where on a different pitch, Rudi Blankson probably connects and makes it 2-1. The Portchester goal mouth was somewhat of a sandpit at both ends, so the ball skipped across Rudi as he slid in to try and get Moneys back into the game.

When you thought it couldn’t get any worse, it sadly did. Portchester pinched the ball back just inside their own half and it fell to Alfie Stanley. The Portchy forward spotted Ellis Grant off of his line and lobbed him from inside the centre circle of the pitch. One of those goals that a keeper will never want to watch back, but the precision of the effort has to be commended. Some finish from Stanley in the 22nd minute.

Portchester weren’t done there. 37 minutes in, Ryan Wilkins curled one in from just outside the box, using defender Jeffes as somewhat of a visual block to impede Grant’s view.

Half-Time: AFC Portchester 4-0 Moneyfields

One sub at half time as Asad Ssemwogerere came on for Rudi Blankson to see if some fresh legs could force some mistakes and offer something different up top.

Futher changes were made just before the 70th minute as Mikey O’Connell and Kieran Alcock replaced Ibrahim Busari and Lawrence Cooper.

In brutal honesty, the second half had nothing to write home about. Grant did make a couple of saves, but neither team created much as Portchester settled for their margin of victory and defended comfortably against a wounded Moneyfields squad.

Full-Time: AFC Portchester 4-0 Moneyfields