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DOUBLE CHAMPS!
Today’s visitors Portland United were the opponents for the Deans’ last league game of the 22/23 season, which saw a 95th minute winner from the head of Zack WIllett dramatically claim the Wessex Premier Division title for Horndean, earning promotion to step 4 of non-league for the first time in the club’s 135 year history The Deans finished with 98 points, 3 points clear of second place Bemerton Heath Harlequins, who also secured automatic promotion. The Champions Horndean would also boast the finest goal difference across the entire top 9 tiers of English football, with a GD of +105, made up of 126 goals, with only 21 being conceded all season in the league. Horndean marksman Zack Willett would also finish the campaign as top scorer in the league, finishing with 46 league goals.
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A week on from the title success, Horndean would face PO title rivals AFC Portchester, in a Portsmouth Senior Cup semi final tie at Five Heads Park Connor Duffin opened the scoring in the first half, before a Rudi Blankson strike late on wrapped up a 2-0 victory, sending the Deans to the final at Fratton Park, where they would face Fareham Town, who had beaten Fleetlands on penalties.
With many of the first team players and staff returning from an end of season trip to Benidorm the same morning, the Deans would enter the hallowed turf of Fratton Park for the Portsmouth Senior Cup final. It was Fareham who took the lead, as Jones opened the scoring in the first half. Horndean looked to be out of the tie until late on, when Tom Jeffes lashed home a stoppage time equaliser, dashing the Creeksider’s hopes of silverware and sending the tie to a penalty shootout. Deans’ keeper Ellis Grant kept out the opening Fareham spotkick, as Horndean clinically scored all 5, with Ethan Robb delivering the knockout blow, and claiming the Portsmouth Senior Cup trophy for Horndean. Skipper for the day Luke Dempsey and fellow centre half Tom Jeffes would together lift the cup in front of the Fratton End, in what would be the duo’s final appearances for the club.
