HOW Gosport Borough must hate the sight of deadly marksman Martin Whiddett.

Having suffered twice at his hands in October's 2-0 Hampshire Senior Cup defeat at Totton, Mick Marsh's stumbling title-chasers were dealt another painful Wessex League title blow at Testwood Park last night.

They led 2-0 courtesy of a Neil Scammell brace, but then fell foul of a tenacious Totton fightback with the menacing Whiddett sealing a 3-2 Stags win.

The result is a massive setback to Gosport, who were bidding to narrow the gap on second-placed Winchester City to just one point.

The sickening part about it is that Whiddett was making a rare appearance for his old club having moved up to Southern League level with Bashley.

Totton boss Barry Blankley admitted: "Whidds made a big difference to us with his physical presence. It doesn't matter if he's playing for us, Bashley or a Sunday parks team, you never get less than 100 per cent from him.

"I phoned Robbo (Bashley manager John Robson) because I was struggling for players and he was happy to let me have Martin because he'd been away for a couple of weeks and only got off the Bashley bench for a few minutes last Saturday. It worked out well for everyone."

Despite a strength-sapping FA Vase victory over Oadby on Saturday, Borough struck in the 32nd and 46th minutes.

Danny Barker began Totton's fightback from a Stuart Ritchie free-kick with 25 minutes remaining and then Whiddett was pulled down for a penalty, which Ritchie converted.

Gosport's offender Jamie Lunn was sent off for protesting about the decision and Whiddett punished the ten men by getting on the end of Stuart Salter's cross.

Blankley acknowledged: "Saturday's Vase game was bound to take a lot out of the Gosport lads, but we showed great character fighting back from two down."