NET-BUSTING title favourites Winchester City have celebrated 13 goals in the first week of the new Sydenhams Premier season.
And the bad news for those harbouring hopes of pushing them for league honours is that two of their star performers, Leigh Mills and Geoff Dunn, have yet to join the party.
Skipper and centre-back Mills has been on holiday, as has ex-Eastleigh man Dunn who shone in pre-season following his summer switch from Lymington Town.
In their absence Winchester have gone goal crazy at the Denplan City Ground, slamming seven past Bournemouth Poppies and six past Fareham Town without reply.
Both Mills and Dunn are due back tomorrow as City bid to make it three wins out of three on their first away assignment at Hamworthy United.
Mike McEnery, Stuart Green and Chris Manning are all unavailable but, with experienced midfielder Liam Green looking sharp after a reserve team run-out, City’s sizeable squad should cope.
Hamworthy, led by former Winchester manager Graham Kemp, have yet to pick up a point, but City co-boss Danny Robinson said: “It won’t be easy.
“We’ve had two good home wins but, if you’re going to win the title, you’ve got to do well on the road.
“The pleasing thing is that, as well as scoring goals, we’ve not conceded. We’ve done that without our skipper Leigh Mills, plus we’ve got our new signing Mark James from Wantage to come in. Mark ended last season with hamstring trouble and he’s just come back from holiday so he’s got to get fit.
“We’ve had two young centre-backs Ben Stanbrook and Luke Dempsey playing. Luke played right-back for us last year at Alresford and we also had Ben at Alresford a couple of years back. He’s a good, young player.”
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