Opposition Preview | AFC Portchester (H)

This Saturday we kick off our FA Cup campaign as we enter the first round qualifying after drawing Step 4 side AFC Portchester at home.

AFC Portchester currently sit in the Isthmian League South Central, one tier below ourselves in the Southern League Premier South.

'The Royals' firstly beat Melksham Town 3-1 at home in an extra preliminary round replay, after drawing 2-2 away first time around. They then advanced to the first qualifying round after beating a team from the same league, Moneyfields, away, 2-1. Saturday's visitors currently sit in 6th place, just outside the playoff spots with their most recent results being a 4-0 win over funnily enough, Moneyfields, however this time at home.

Saturday's opposition are yet to lose in the 1st qualifying round of the FA Cup after four wins, the most memorable being a win over Dorchester in 2017.

'Porchy' were promoted from step five to step four after being crowned Wessex League Premier Division Champions in the 2024-25 season, topping the table with a grand total of 103 points. The man at the helm, Gav Spurway.

The dangermen for the opposition has to be for one Alfie Stanley, 23, who played his football at Gosport Borough last season seems to be a handful for opposition defence in ever game he has featured in so far. Stanley also scored from 50+ yards at the weekend, the ball dipping perfectly over the goalkeeper. Two players who are no stranger to playing in an orange shirt are Charlie Williamson and James Cowan, who both recently surpassed 150 appearances for the Royals.

Club History

In just over half a century AFC Portchester have grown from their humble beginnings as a Sunday League team to Step 4 of the non-league pyramid system and having a thriving ladies and youth section of 40 teams.

In April 1971, Lloyds Sports was formed and played in the City of Portsmouth Sunday League Division 6 under the guiding hand of Bob AR Sansbury. The club’s name was changed to Colour vision Rangers in 1973.

The name was changed again three years later to Wicor Mill after Bob retired and Colin Brans took over as secretary. The club won various honours in the Saturday and Sunday local leagues and by the 1986-87 season Wicor Mill FC was the largest pub club in Hampshire, running seven teams in total.

The club had long harboured ambitions to climb up through the leagues to higher levels and ahead of the 1998-99 season Portchester were accepted into the Hampshire League and joined Division 3. They went on to win successive promotions to Hampshire Division 1, becoming champions in 2001-02.

A further name change followed in 2000 and the club was known as AFC Portchester for the first time. The season of 2002-03 brought the merger of AFC Portchester with youth football set up Castle Royals.

Portchester became members of the Wessex League in 2004 and they gained promotion to the Premier Division in 2012 after finishing runners-up in Division 1 under manager Glen Bridgeman. The club tried to climb up from Step 5 of the non league pyramid system for 13 years before they finally gained promotion in 2025.

Their best Premier Division finish before winning promotion was third place in 2014-15 under manager Graham Rix. Portchester missed out on automatic promotion under boss Dave Carter in 2022-23 with a heartbreaking final night of the season defeat which saw them slip from second to fourth place. They finished in the same position the following season only to lose at the semi finals stage of the Promotion Play-offs.