Havant & Waterlooville 2-5 Portsmouth XI: Pompey show power to punish Hawks

By Trevor Brock

HAVANT & WATERLOOVILLE 2

Wright 10, Roberts 30

PORTSMOUTH XI 5

Tunnicliffe 17, Trialist 53, 55, 80, Hackett-Fairchild 68

WRIGHT STUFF: Tommy Wright celebrates the opening goal against Portsmouth.

PICTURE: Kieron Louloudis

HAVANT & Waterlooville’s new-look side led high-profile south coast neighbours Portsmouth, only for the League One side to turn the tables after the break.

An unknown trialist stole the show with a second-half hat-trick for Danny Cowley’s men after Tommy Wright and new signing James Roberts had given the Hawks a surprise lead.

“I was very happy with the run-out,” said Hawks boss Paul Doswell. “The most important thing is we picked up no injuries, however, I felt we didn’t have players that Pompey had to change in the second half when they went with almost an entire changed team.”

The game started with a minute’s applause for former Portsmouth favourite Paul Mariner, who passed away at the age of 68.

Pompey started brightly and dominated possession in the opening ten minutes but it was the home side that broke the deadlock. A fine long-range strike from Wright beat Pompey goalkeeper Alex Bass all ends up.

James Roberts fends off Clark Robertson

However, the League One side hit back with a move that was started by winger Ronan Curtis, who drove across the edge of the box, finding Marcus Harness, and he set up Ryan Tunnicliffe to beat Ross Worner from the edge of the area.

Worner then had to be at his best to charge down Pompey striker Jon Marquis and then produced a wonderful save from the striker again to keep the scores level.

Joe Newton runs past Callum Johnson

The Hawks moved back into the lead 14 minutes before the interval with Roberts beating Bass with a superb angled effort.

Portsmouth boss Cowley rang in the changes at the break with just one player remaining from the first-half line-up.

One of the trialists, designated ‘Trailist H’, soon levelled when he hooked home after a goalmouth scramble.

The same player then got a second goal as he hit a strike which was saved by Worner, but nodded the rebound into the net.

Former Bromley front man Reeco Hackett-Fairchild then joined the party when he cut inside from the right and bent the ball past the despairing Worner.

The balance of the game had changed completely and the visitors grabbed a fifth later on as Hackett-Fairchild laid on Trialist H to complete his hat-trick with a superb turn and finish.

Cowley said: “The game was very competitive. I personally learnt a lot from our first-half performance but pleased that many of our trialists shone in the second half.

“It was a great day to see the fans back in numbers and I commend Havant on having a great facility.”

STAR MAN: Joe Oastler (Havant & W)

ENTERTAINMENT: ★★★★☆