New Milton Town FC victory finally ends losing run

PLAYER-manager Pat Wilson believes his New Milton charges finally got their just rewards after ending their long winless run.

Jake Carswell’s early opener and Erickson Mukambi’s second-half penalty earned Linnets a 2-0 win over Wessex One high-fliers Alton on Saturday.

Victory over the Brewers on their 3G pitch at Anstey Park Enclosure halted a sequence of 13 successive defeats in all competitions for New Milton.

A fifth league win of the campaign saw Linnets climb two places to 16th ahead of the visit of promotion-chasing US Portsmouth to Fawcett’s Field tomorrow (8th December).

Alton finished the contest with nine men having had two players sent off for disputing the award of the penalty, which came 10 minutes from time.

Wilson, who has assembled a youthful squad since taking the reins in the summer, told the A&T: “We’d had six really good performances on the trot but knew we needed a positive result so it was excellent to get one.

“The manner of the win was good as well. They changed their formation in the second half and threw more attackers at us but we dug in and kept defending.

“I felt it was a deserved win. We had lots of chances but they had a few as well. We defended well enough to frustrate them and it was fairly evenly matched but we came out on top.

“We needed it and, hopefully, we can build on it. We play US Portsmouth next and need another good performance. We didn’t play our best against them last month so it will be another good test for us.

“The players have remained very motivated, which is good. Even though we had suffered a few defeats, they could see in their own performances that they were improving as players and as a team. That’s the main reason we started this whole project.

“They are dealing with the physicality of the league and are getting better. We have kept stressing to them that if they keep doing the simple things, then the results will come.”

A post on the Alton official Twitter congratulated New Milton on their win and described as “disappointing” their own team’s performance and behaviour.

Asked about the two dismissals, Wilson said: “Over time, I think they got frustrated at not scoring and we defended quite well. We also kept the ball well so you get frustrated when you don’t see too much of the ball.”

New Milton Town: Mayo, Wilson, Medway, Richie, Pickett, Pearson, Carswell, Broad, Baxter (Mohammed, 86), Scott, Mukambi (Wilkinson, 84). Unused subs: Zdrava, Ferguson.