Quickfire double gives Fareham men their first league win of the season – while the women maintain 100 per cent record

Paul Metcalf and George Davey scored the goals which earned Fareham their first win of the season from a match low in quality and which only came to life in its latter stages.

Fareham’s young and inexperienced squad has been boosted with the return of Steve Daxter and Jack Simmons alongside James Morris, with the pre-half-term 1-1 draw at Havant and the win over Ashmoor giving the side confidence ahead of Saturday’s demanding lunchtime visit to second-placed Chichester (1.30pm).

Fareham ‘led’ Ashmoor 4-2 on unconverted penalty corners until that critical period early in the third quarter when they opened up the visitors’ defence.

Nippy England Under-16 starlet Charlie Cook was the architect behind both the Fareham goals, his right-side dart in to the Ashmoor circle forcing a penalty corner from which Metcalf scored his second National League goal.

Cook, whose England team-mate Matt Dicker really caught the eye in midfield, had an ever bigger hand in Fareham’s second points-clinching goal.

Picking up on a surging run out of defence by Kieron Page, Cook forced another short corner, which Davey fired against the backboard.

Ashmoor, who had drawn all four of their previous games, cut the gap early in the final quarter, but Fareham managed the closing stages with Alex White making several fine saves.

*Fareham ladies are off to a flier in the South Central Women's Premier Division 1 and share top place with Bournemouth after four straight wins - but their success has got coach Steve Lemon on edge.

Lemon is worried that he might be named 'manager of the month' - an award that all too often brings a defeat for the recipient in the very next game.

‘Look what often happens to soccer managers, they often lose their next match!’ he laughed.

‘All joking apart, the girls deserve their success. They've begun the season so well, the only downside being that we've dominated matches by greater margins than the scorelines suggest.’

Fareham have so far banged in 14 goals and conceded only two - that brace coming in the opening match at Marlow when several of the side ran into traffic problems en route to the game and they fell behind before winning 3-2.

They've kept clean sheets in the next three games, beating Havant 4-0 (Lauren Anning 2, Sarah Johns, Georgie Coleman), defending champions Oxford Hawks 3-0 (Poppy Roddis, Johns, Coleman) and Maidenhead 4-0, with Anning and Rebecca Reavell scoring in the first half and Coleman and Sian Edwards doubling the score after the break.

Fareham aim a fifth straight win at Trojans on Saturday (1.30pm).