HAMWORTHY United boss Simon Browne hopes deadly Dominic Allen can continue his flying start to the season at Fareham Town tonight (7.45pm).

Allen’s brace helped the Hammers open their Wessex Premier account with three points against Totton & Eling and Browne believes there is plenty more to come from the former Bashley frontman.

The County Ground chief said: “Other than, maybe, Luke Burbidge I don’t think we’ve had a 20 goal-a-season striker in my time at the club, and if you can get one it makes a world of difference.

“We’ve been after Dom for a while. He’s been around a few Wessex League clubs but never really established himself in their front line, but hopefully he can do that here.”

Browne will be without defenders Greg Horlock (suspended) and Alex Ayling (unavailable) while left back Sam Lockyer is likely to spend two weeks on the sidelines with an ankle knock.

Midfielder Dave Sturgess misses out because of work commitments but Paddy Hester and Stefan Penny should feature.

Hammers: (from) Knights, Head, Holland, Biles, Saunders, Penny, Lanahan, Pekun, Allen, Claremont, Hester, Stacey, Shovelton, Bassiriki, Chudy.

  • Verwood Town boss Adie Arnold wants his players to leave their opening day nightmare behind them when they travel to AFC Portchester (7.45pm).

A lacklustre performance resulted in a surprise 2-0 defeat to Cowes Sports in the League Cup and the Potterne Park chief admitted his unchanged squad will need to up the ante if they are to get anything from their trip to Cranleigh Road.

Arnold said: “It will be a hard game because Portchester are a strong unit, like most of the Portsmouth sides in this league, but we are looking for a response from Saturday.

“We just didn’t play against Cowes and, with respect, we should be beating teams like that. The performance was poor and very disappointing.

“There's a bit of history with Portchester after we came up together and this would be a good chance for the lads to bounce back.”

Potters: Lynch, Evans, Oldring, Kelly, Homer, Hill, Dyer, Webb, Lovell, Saxby, Haskell, Smith, Gilham, Kimber, Murray.

  • Bournemouth Poppies are likely to name an unchanged squad for their trip to Bemerton Heath Harlequins as they begin a run of fixtures boss Ken Vaughan describes as “a baptism of fire”.

Vaughan’s men travel to Wiltshire tonight (7.45pm) before away days against fancied sides Sholing, Moneyfields and Winchester City over the next two weeks.

The Poppies boss said: “It will be very tough. We’re away to, arguably, the four of the top sides in the league.

“It is a real baptism of fire but we’re really looking forward to the challenge and these games will tell us just how far away we are from pushing at the right end of the table.”

Poppies: Lillington, Ayrton, Jackson, Crow, Bartlett, Saadi, Burgis, Robinson, Cooper, Corby, Warren, Lamalli, Phillips, Andrews, Clarke, Pearce.