MANAGER Graham Kemp hailed the depth of his Christchurch squad as Priory cruised to a 3-0 victory at struggling Lymington.

Kemp’s charges remained two points behind leaders Downton with two Wessex League games in hand after Russell Cook’s brace and Sam Griffin’s strike saw the Hurn Bridge outfit win for the ninth time in 10 league matches.

And after resting some of his more experienced players at Southampton Road, the Priory boss feels his current crop is the strongest he has had as Christchurch try to improve on last season’s third-place finish.

Kemp told the Daily Echo: “If anyone told me at the start of the season that we would have the likes of Mark Smith, Ben Osborne and Dan Crutchley on the bench for a league match, I would have thought they were joking.

“We now have 17 first team players at the club and they are all doing exceptionally well. I said from day one that our squad is as good as anyone’s in this league.

“It was a comfortable afternoon. We were two up inside half an hour but their keeper was man of the match and we could have been five or six up at half time.

“It was really pleasing to field eight players that have come from our youth side again. We kept faith with most of the lads that won at Newport in midweek and it was another disciplined performance where we passed the ball well.”

Priory: Collins, Thompson, Taylor, Legg, Magookin, Burt, Burden, Puckett, Cook, Griffin, Cornick (Smith, 60). Unused subs: Crutchley, Dand, Osborne, Frampton (g/k).

Hammers boss Simon Browne, without 13 players for the game, said he was relieved to snatch the points after a testing couple of weeks for his charges.

He said: “I only had one defender on the pitch and, to a man, I thought my lads were excellent.

“We just about deserved to win. It was not a pretty game by any means, the conditions weren’t conducive to playing good football.”

Verwood boss Adie Arnold admitted: “It was a shocking advert for Wessex Premier League football from both sides.”

Elsewhere, substitute Connor Phillips rescued a point for Poppies in a 1-1 draw against former club Horndean, while New Milton were thrashed 5-1 at Alton.

Hammers: Knights, Penny, Walker, Wood, Murray, Robinson, Muller, Carlile, Chudy, Bradley (Ritchie, 85), Pekun (Shovelton, 75).

Potters: Lynch, Delaney, Dyer, Evans, Gajic, Haskell, Hill, Kelly, Lynch, Satterley (Webb, 65), Saxby (Elysee, 55), M Smith. Unused subs: Anderton, Rhodes, J Smith.

Poppies: Vaughan, Ayrton, Jackson, Clarke, Crutcher, Ward, Maguire, Phillipson-Masters, Warren, Saadi, Lockyer (Phillips, 15). Unused subs: Molyneaux, Llewelyn, Hatch, Lepage.

Linnets: Hookway, Blackburn, Pidgley, Booker, Curtis, Morris, Mullins (Sampays, 65), Whitcher, De’ath (Ramos, 57), Donaldson (Head, 74), Molloy. Unused subs: Barge, Holland.