THE MANAGER

Good afternoon and a very warm welcome to Foxcotte Park to all our supporters for today’s game against our visitor’s Newport IOW.

I’d like to welcome the Port’s management team, their staff, players and all officials and supporters who have made the long journey to Andover this afternoon.

Newport have been a consistent side over the past couple of seasons and like us, suffered at the hands of Laverstock & Ford in the Play-Offs last season.

Today’s game comes at the business end of the season and with promotion still up for grabs.

The Port’s recent impressive form has seen them beat Amesbury, Fleet Spurs and Andover Town comfortably. They have however, lost at both Petersfield and Hamworthy Rec. They will also look back on the recent draw to East Cowes if they fail to get automatic promotion this season.

We come into the game knowing that promotion is very much in our hands, but we still have to earn those three points to make it certain of the title.

We are taking each game as it comes. We have Totton & Eling and East Cowes still to play after today and both will put up a good fight against us.

It took me a few hours to get over last Saturday’s game. I’ve never been involved in a match like that before.

At half-time I asked the players what they had left in themselves and the second half they showed me how much they want promotion.

I’m not being biased when I say my team were magnificent, and so were you in the stands. We showed great character to change the tide of the game, which at that point was very much against us.

In the second half, we showed the attacking prowess we have as we grew stronger and just when it looked as though we would lose 4-3, Cooky scored twice to make certain of the points.

It’s been a long tough season, but let’s have one big final push as we aim for our season’s objective.

Enjoy the game.