Following relegation from National League South and an opening day defeat at Leiston, Havant & Waterlooville have won four on the bounce and sit in 3rd place in the Isthmian League Premier Division. Hopefully an immediate return to the National South beckons!
A 5th concecutive win on Monday sets the Hawks up for a local derby on saturday, when they travel down the M27 for an FA Cup 1st Qualifying round tie at Sholing.
Good news Dev I'm delighted for manager Lee Bradbury. Interesting to read that he signed ex-Pompey academy striker Bradley Tarbuck in the Summer, as well as Wes Fogden.
Maybe it is me, but it seems that the level of non-league football is very poor in the Hampshire area. There are some big towns adjacent to both Southampton and Portsmouth like Havant, Fareham, Gosport, Winchester and Basingstoke but these teams are nowhere near National Conference Level while clubs in smaller towns like Forest Green are. Something has not been quite right for a long time at the clubs in the towns that I have cited have underperformed. Hampshire needs two or three clubs to get to the Conference and even the football league which then result in pushing up the level of performance of Portsmouth.
More importantly Farnborough are currently top of their league, and are through to the 2nd round qualifying of the FA Cup and have several 5-0 wins already this season. I agree with Ides that non-league football in Hampshire isn't great... but it doesn't help that there's only one promotion place from most leagues in non-league and Hampshire teams do not do play-offs. Think of all the Hampshire clubs who get into the play-offs one season, get knocked out then in the following seasons, struggle... Havant, Basingstoke, Farnborough...
Morecambe and Accrington have smaller populations that lets say Fareham yet are able to sustain FL teams.
