Hartley Wintney have been relegated from the Southern League Premier Division South after suffering a defeat against Gosport Borough.

Gosport themselves eased their relegation fears with the solitary-goal win in the Hampshire derby.

The defeat meant the Row will not be playing in the league next season pending ground grading issues elsewhere.

Hartley were forced to play with a very threadbare squad for this match following sickness to a number of players.

Manager Rowan Vine was a substitute as was his son Quaye Vine. A further blow was dealt in the pre-match warm up when defender Joe Morrison pulled up with a strain.

After much reshuffling Tom Leggett moved to central defence to partner Toby Neville.

With a strong swirling wind generally in their favour, the Borough were soon on the attack.

On three minutes a right-wing cross from Harvey Rew was caught in the wind and Marcin Brzozowski did well to tip the ball over the crossbar. On seven minutes after a spell of pressure Abdulai Baggie had a powerful effort on goal which was beaten out by Brzozowski.

Hartley put together their best move of the match on 20 minutes. Zidan Akers, Afo Soyemi and Harry Cooksley combined to set up Anis Nuur. The midfielder’s shot from the 18-yard line was pushed over by Patrick O’Flaherty in the Boro goal.

On 27 minutes Gosport took the lead. Daniel Hollands dinked a ball over the Hartley back four and Abdulai Baggie controlled well before shooting into the corner of the net.  (1-0).

Hartley started the second half strongly and soon laid siege to the home goal with several corners. On 52 minutes a Cooksley corner was not fully cleared and Nuur saw his effort from 20 yards go just over the crossbar.  Hartley remained in the ascendancy but without creating a clear-cut chance to test O’Flaherty in the Gosport goal.