WHEN Mick Marsh emigrates to Spain at the end of the season he would dearly love to leave Gosport with a one-way ticket to the Ryman League.

But he fears their path to promotion will be blocked again by defending champions Winchester City who, with their guiding light David Malone back on board, are threatening to be every bit as prolific as they were last term.

Having been whipped 5-0 by the league leaders at Privett Park before City's mini 'crisis' kicked in with Malone's brief departure, Borough had the misfortune of meeting Neil Hards's FA Vase holders when they were back to their buoyant best on Saturday.

After watching his team eclipsed 5-1 by a Jamie Musselwhite hat-trick and singles from Jamie Laidlaw and Shaun Dyke, admiring Borough boss Marsh conceded: "There's a big gap between Winchester and the rest. They're a class side who, on their day, are a league or maybe even two leagues better than the Wessex.

"It looks like it's their title again. No disrespect to Lymington & New Milton, who we played last week, but on what I've seen today they're not a patch on Winchester. It looks as if the rest of us are playing for second place again.

"Winchester's movement's superb and they're so good at finding the back of the net. They had maybe seven or eight chances today and scored five of them. I didn't particularly rate young Musselwhite a couple of years ago, but he's improved so much with Winchester. He's a class act and that's credit to Neil (Hards)."

Gosport also lost out to City in the transfer market last week. They had harboured hopes of signing defender Mat Jones from Bashley, but instead found themselves up against him as the 28-year-old made his Winchester debut.

It was Jones's sliding tackle and slide-rule pass that set up Jamie Laidlaw for City's 48th-minute third after a word of advice from Hards, who felt the new boy hadn't quite adjusted to the champions' slick passing game.

Hards laughed: "When Joneser came off at half-time I said I know Geoff (Bashley manager Geoff Butler) likes to get to ball forward quickly in the Ryman League, but I asked him to keep it on the floor and pass it to one of ours! On a couple of occasions we lost possession because of Mat knocking it long but, to be fair to him, he adapted really well and I thought we were outstanding.

"We've had a lot of negative publicity over the last few weeks and it's really pleasing to have some positive things to say again. I don't think anyone at this level can play better than we did today. It was as good as anything I saw from us last year."

Graeme Gee, Winchester's other new signing from Bashley, also shone on his debut after replacing veteran midfielder Gary Green for the last 20 minutes.

He was the architect of City's fifth goal, playing a superb pass to Musselwhite, who unselfishly squared the ball across the six-yard box for Dyke to finish at the far post.

The magnificent Musselwhite didn't need to be greedy by that stage having produced an exhibition of finishing that would have done last season's watching top scorer Andy Forbes proud.

His first, a left-foot blast into the roof of the net, came after keeper Colin Matthews had got only a weak punch to Mark Jones's 17th-minute cross.

Gosport, who had made the brighter opening, sent a couple of Danny Sturman chances wide, but it was Musselwhite who got the all-important second on 40 minutes, sweetly clipping the ball over Matthews from Ian Buckman's pass.

His 64th-minute third was more about persistence than precision as he challenged Matthews for skipper Matt Bicknell's cross and stuck it away at the second attempt.

Hards said: "For one so young Jamie's a quality player. He's worked really hard since he came here from Fareham and we've got him playing the way we want him to. He's enjoying his football and we're lucky to have him."

The boss added: "All the new lads did well today, including young Robbie Chamberlain (ex-Basingstoke and Eastleigh), who came on with ten minutes to go. We're building a nice mix of a squad."

Gosport at least had the consolation of scoring this time when Ian Dyer cracked in a long-range effort off the crossbar to make it 4-1. But there was only ever going to be one winner and Portsmouth-based Hards confessed: "I feel sorry for Mick because every time we play them, we play well. He's not caught us on a bad day yet, but we do have them. We were very poor in the second half against Thatcham a couple of weeks back, but we always save our best for Gosport!"

One person who missed out on the City celebrations was coach Steve Moss. He was a couple of hundred miles away in Bideford, spying on next week's FA Vase opponents Bridgwater.