Petersfield Town manager Connor Hoare is looking forward to his side’s Portsmouth Senior Cup semi-final against the Royal Navy FA.

The Rams crashed to a 5-1 defeat at Fareham Town in their final Wessex League Premier Division match of the season on Monday evening.

Petersfield had a number of players missing for the match, and Hoare admitted he also had an eye on Thursday’s semi-final after a gruelling schedule.

“We had 11 players unavailable,” said Hoare. “When you have that amount of players missing against a good Fareham side it was always going to be difficult. We were missing some key players who make a big difference for us. We also had to manage the players to make sure we are as strong as we can be for Thursday. We’ve been mid-table for a while so the semi-final coming up on Thursday is our biggest game. We will be going all out to get to the final.”

Monday evening’s defeat followed a 1-1 draw at home to Cowes Sports in the Wessex League Premier Division on Saturday in front of a bumper crowd of 420.

Alex Hulme gave Petersfield the lead in the first half, but Ollie West’s free header past Rams keeper Harry Greenfield earned the visitors a share of the spoils.

Action from Petersfield Town's 1-1 draw against Cowes Sports (Photo: Taylor-James Greer)
Action from Petersfield Town's 1-1 draw against Cowes Sports (Photo: Taylor-James Greer) (Taylor-James Greer)

“We played really well against Cowes and should have won the game,” said Hoare. “It was a really good day for the club in front of a big crowd. It was a match between two mid-table teams with no rivalry and nothing much riding on the game, but the crowd created a real buzz and was excellent for Wessex League football.”

The Rams were also in action last Tuesday night (April 16), when they slipped to a 2-1 defeat at Baffins Milton Rovers in the Wessex League Premier Division.

Kelvin Robinson gave Baffins the lead with 15 minutes left when he tapped in. Austin Giles thought he had earned the Rams a point on 88 minutes when he nodded home, but Ed Sanders scored Baffins’ winner in stoppage time when his header looped into the near post.