Shaun Gale's high praise for young contingent who stood tall in Portsmouth Senior Cup final meeting with Moneyfields - and thanks support base and chairman Iain McInnes for endless season backing
Shaun Gale praised the professional efforts of his Gosport Borough troops as they lifted the Portsmouth Senior Cup with a comfortable 4-1 victory over Wessex League Premier Moneyfields.
And Gale says the trophy win serves as a thanks to the club's sizeable following, chairman Iain McInnes and others involved with Boro for their input over a long, hard season.
Gosport's final act of the 2021-22 campaign proved to be an enjoyable one, with Dan Wooden's first-half double being followed by Aston's Leigh's second-half penalty and Luke Hallett's late header as Gale's men comfortably dealt with two-divisions lower Moneyfields at Baffins Milton Rovers FC's PMC Stadium.
However, they did have Billie Busari shown a straight red card just minutes after he had come off the bench mid-way through the second-half having reacted angrily to an off-the-ball incident to put the slightest dampener on things.
The Boro boss fielded a team with a sprinkling of youth involvement, as teenagers Harvey Rew and Luke Hallett - both 19 - and 17-year-old Finley Walsh-Smith - handed his first Boro start - all featured from the outset in the final. And Gale could not have been happier with how the whole team dealt with the threat carried by Moneyfields.
He said: ‘It was really professional (performance). I'm really pleased with the youngsters, they showed a lot of maturity and how far they've come. Harry Kavanagh, Harvey Rew, Ashton Leigh did well, obviously young Fin (Walsh-Smith) had his first game starting for us at centre-back - he was up against an experienced, strong centre-forward (Steve Hutchings) who's not going to give you five minute's peace. He wouldn't have come up against anything like that before, Fin, but I was pleased he showed what he can do. Obviously getting young Dan Aitken on as well, he's only 16 years old.'
Gosport ended their Southern League Premier South campaign with a 2-1 victory at Yate Town last weekend, although that was not enough to see them finish in the play-off places. But Gale was delighted to be able to give all involved with the club something to cheer to end the campaign.
He added: ‘It's a pleasing way to end the season, to be fair, on a high, with a bit of silverware, for the football club and all the people who put all the hard work in. It's for everyone, the fans and for the chairman who puts a lot of hard work and money into the club.’