New Gosport Borough signing once silenced the Fratton faithful with Torquay winner

Striker Billy Bodin was only unveiled as a Boro player a few hours before Wednesday’s home Southern League Premier South fixture with Bracknell.

And he made an instant impact after being introduced off the bench in the 55th minute with his new club trailing to a goal from ex-Privett Park favourite Rafa Ramos.

Within five minutes, Bodin had dispossessed a defender in the Bracknell 18-yard box, before gliding past two challenges and firing a low shot into the bottom corner.

It was a quality strike by a player with 393 EFL appearances, the first coming for hometown club Swindon 16 years ago this week.

Now 34, Bodin has dropped down to the seventh tier of the pyramid after being released by Swindon at the end of last season.

He had appeared 27 times in League Two in 2025-26 for the Robins, of which nine were starts.

Bodin had previously made 36 League One appearances for Oxford United in 2023-24, the season the U’s won the play-off final thanks to a Josh Murphy brace in the Wembley final against Bolton.

The player had joined Oxford in the summer of 2021, going on to play alongside Pompey boss John Mousinho.

While at Preston, he had made his sole senior Welsh international appearance, against Uruquay in China in March 2018, coming on in the 67th minute of a 1-0 defeat.

It was back in February 2014, though, that Bodin netted a goal which plunged the Blues, then managed by Richie Barker, deeper into a fourth tier relegation battle.

He scored the only goal as Torquay, second bottom of the Football League entering the Fratton Park fixture, moved to within three points of Pompey.

It arrived in the 27th minute in front of the Fratton End and ended up being his only goal in 28 outings that season, and one of 79 he netted in his professional league and cup career.

Mercifully, Pompey eased any relegation fears thanks to a five-game winning streak under caretaker Andy Awford following Barker’s sacking.

No such escape for Torquay, though, who finished the season bottom – relegated to the Conference for the second time.

The Devonians have never returned to the EFL and are currently spending their third season in the National League South, now under the management of Jimmy Ball.

The Gulls are one of three clubs who Pompey faced in league action in 2013-14 who are now in the sixth tier, alongside Dagenham & Redbridge and Morecambe.

Pompey faced Morecambe in League One as recently as April 2023, in a 0-0 Fratton Park stalemate. Three relegations in four seasons, though, have seen them slip into National League North.

*Gosport’s point against Bracknell left them 13th in the Premier South table.

Without a game this weekend, Bodin’s next game could be at home to Poole Town next Wednesday in the league.