‘Nothing better than proving people wrong’ – homeless Moneyfields celebrate winning first-ever Wessex League title

That’s the case with Moneyfields, who have been unable to play a proper ‘home’ game since March 2022 due to the long-running delays in completing the John Jenkins Stadium development in Copnor.

Despite that huge hassle, Moneys have just won the club’s first-ever Wessex League title - becoming the first Portsmouth-based club to be crowned champions in the league’s 36-year history.

Not only that, but if they win their last two games they will have done it dropping fewer points than any previous Wessex top flight title winner.

Even AFC Lymington’s ‘invincibles’ of 1996/97 - 35 wins and five draws in 40 games - dropped 10 points en route to the title. Moneys have only dropped seven in 36 fixtures, via two draws and one defeat (to Stoneham last August).

Glenn Turnbull’s men - the leading scorers in the top nine tiers of English football - are also on course to set a new Premier record for the highest goals per game average (currently 3.63).

And victory over Sherborne this weekend will see them complete a 100 per cent ‘home’ league record - the first time that’s ever been achieved in Wessex history.

Should they do so, a 19th successive ‘home’ win would have been spread across five different venues - Chichester City, Havant & Waterlooville, US Portsmouth, Fareham Town and AFC Portchester.

This season’s title glory has been achieved after Moneys finished fifth last year, a distant 29 points adrift of fourth-placed Portchester and 33 behind champions Horndean.

But Turnbull revealed he told his squad last summer he thought they would be challenging for the silverware.

“I believed in what we were doing,” he told The News. “I didn’t think we were 10 games worse than some of the teams above us last season.

“It was just a case of making a few minor tweaks. I knew we had the ability, we needed to bring in some leadership.”

As a result, the highly experienced Steve Ramsey and Tom Jeffes were recruited from Portchester and Horndean respectively.

Jeffes was no stranger to Turnbull, having been his captain when US Portsmouth won promotion from Division 1 of the Wessex League in the summer of 2021 - the same year they reached the semi-finals of the FA Vase.

“It didn’t matter that no-one outside our group thought we could win the league.

“I’m not sure Rambo (Ramsey) thought that when we lost (the second game of the season) at Stoneham!

“But it built and built and built. We never got too far ahead of ourselves, it was always about the next training session or the next game. The lads kept their feet on the ground.

“And there’s nothing better than proving people wrong.”

Turnbull praised the behind-the-scenes work of his assistant Joe Noakes and coach Neil Tomlinson.

“Joe brought in a video the other day of Mike Tyson’s old trainer.

“It was full of phrases like ‘we’re in the final round now, like a firefighter running towards the flames - this is what you train for.’

“We were like that, we were the firefighters running towards the flames, we weren’t running away.”

Turnbull said winning the Wessex title far eclipsed the emotions of coming within a penalty shoot out of taking 10th tier USP to Wembley three years ago.

“This is miles better,” he declared. “Back then we fell at the final hurdle so you can’t claim that as a success.

“This is much, much better. We’ve won every home game, and I don’t want us to be the side that wins the league and then drops off because it doesn’t matter.

“If we can pick up six more points, that would take us to 104 - that would be absolutely phenomenal.”

Moneys won the title with two games to spare despite having three points deducted for failing to fulfil a home match with Petersfield in late January.

That was due to a proposed groundshare agreement with Portchester falling through on the day before Moneys were due to host the Rams at the On-Site Group Stadium.