Hamble ASSC have lost an assistant manager but gained a coach.

The blow of losing ex-Saint Paul Masters to AFC Totton has been soothed by the arrival of John Robson at Follands Park.

"Paul's a big loss to us. He's been outstanding," said Hamble boss Danny Bowers. "He'll be sorely missed, but I fully understand that he's ambitious and I don't blame him for wanting to join a club like Totton, who are a potential title-winning side for next season.

"But life goes on, as they say, and we're delighted to have John Robson with us as coach.

"Richard Morse was doing the coaching for us but he wants to concentrate on playing, so we asked John to help out until the end of the season and hopefully he'll decide in the summer that it's the right job for him."

Robson boasts bags of managerial experience with clubs like Worthing, Winchester City, Bashley, Totton and, more recently, Gosport Borough, and Bowers is chuffed to have replaced one quality clubman with another.

"We've followed a massive loss with an unbelievable gain," he said. "The lads have taken to John like ducks to water and he's got everyone buzzing. I'd only ever known him through football and I didn't realise what a funny character he is.

"From a selfish point of view I'm going learn so much from him, however long he stays. He's one of the best coaches around."

Totton, home to Christchurch tomorrow, are welcoming Masters aboard as coach at Testwood Park. Manager Stuart Ritchie goes back a long way with the tenacious midfielder, having played with him at Totton and at Havant & Waterlooville when they won the 1998/99 Dr Martens Southern Division title.

"Paul's very knowledgeable and you can't have enough good football people around," said Ritchie.

"We're both on the same wavelength where football is concerned and, when I spoke to him about coming to Totton he was interested straight away."