If you thought 2025 was proving to be a long, old year on the football front for AFC Portchester you were right.
The Royals face match number 59 of the calendar year this Saturday when Kingstonian visit The OnSite Group Stadium.
With eight more matches scheduled to be played by Gav Spurway’s side before Big Ben chimes in 2026, his side will reach an incredible total of 66 games played this year.
That will total 99 hours of football action in total for the year – the equivalent of flying to western Australia and back three times.
While the matches have wracked up to the kind of levels Premier League managers who like to moan about their schedules would have kittens over, it hasn’t been a bad watch for Royals fans.
Completing an unprecedented quadruple, promotion to Step 4, finalists in a fifth competition at the end of the 2024-25 campaign, another trophy snapped up in pre-season and decent runs in both the FA Cup and FA Trophy – if you are a Portchester supporter the number of games isn’t something you are going to complain about after the amount of success these have brought.
But a punishing schedule in the 2025-26 season so far – which has seen the Royals only have three mid-weeks without a game since the start of the season in August – has caught up with the players.
Speaking after the recent draw against Fareham, manager Gav Spurway said: “We’ve had a lot of injuries this season so the lads are trying to get back to match fitness and sharp, but we’ve had a lot of Saturday-Tuesday games back to back.
“To be fair the lads are putting a shift in and giving it as much as they can but the quality side of stuff at the moment is just not coming through.”
Portchester should be boosted soon by the return of striker Ryan Pennery. He has been out since the FA Cup tie at Moneyfields back in August but has stepped up his training in the past few weeks as he looks set to return to the squad.
Defender Rob Taw was an unused substitute in last Saturday’s trip to Hanworth Villa, while midfielder James Cowan is edging closer to a return after picking up an ankle injury.
A win for the Royals could take them as high as seventh place in the South Central Division standings, depending on results elsewhere. Tuesday night’s win over South Park Reigate moved them up to tenth place.
Kingstonian currently sit fifth from bottom in the table but only six points separate the two sides heading into this game.
They have lost their last two away league games – at Egham Town and Metropolitan Police. Their last league win was a 3-1 home victory over Hendon on October 29.
