SACKED Winchester City manager Ian Saunders has made a winning return to football.

No sooner had he absorbed the shock of his Denplan City Ground exit than he was appointed No2 to Graham Rix at Sydenhams Premier outfit AFC Portchester.

Saunders couldn’t have asked for a better start as the Royals ended a four-game losing streak with a 2-0 home victory over Andover Town.

Portchester took an early lead when Alex Baldacchino met Rob Evans’ deep cross to fire past Lloyd Thomas in the Andover goal.

They doubled it deep into first-half stoppage time as Andy Todd drilled a shot into the bottom corner.

A chuffed Saunders tweeted: “Pleased for everyone involved. Fingers crossed we can build on today and keep moving forward.”

Portchester return to action on Wednesday (7.30pm) away to Newport IoW, whose 3-2 weekend win at Amesbury Town began more like a penalty shootout competition.

The first three goals all came from the spot with Port’s Connor Kelly sandwiching a 25th-minute penalty between two from Amesbury’s Tyler Brockway.

Liam Triggs finally bucked the trend with Port’s 65th-minute leveller and, ten minutes later, Joe Butcher secured all three Sydenhams Premier points for the Islanders.

*Amesbury Town are hosting an evening with Chelsea legend Ron ‘Chopper’ Harris on Saturday, April 8 (tickets £15). Enquiries to amesburytownfc@gmail.com