ANDY Leader insisted he was "proud" of the way his Christchurch team performed at Winchester, despite their 3-1 defeat to the Wessex One leaders.

Priory were rocked by the death of Steve Bernard last week who was tragically killed in a car accident while away at university in Chichester.

But Leader's troops produced a performance full of character that the manager believes was testament to the popular striker.

He said: "It has been a very, very difficult week for everyone at the club.

"Football is not important at a time like this but we felt it was what Steve would have wanted for us to go out and produce a performance.

"I was proud of the way we went about it and everyone conducted themselves in a fashion that Steve would have been proud of. We didn't get the result for him but I think he was out there with us."

Despite a double sending off of defender Lee Hodder and City's Ian Mancey just 10 minutes into the game, a decision described as "a joke" by Leader, Priory held the table-toppers until the hour mark when Jamie Musselwhite opened the scoring, despite claims for handball in the build-up. Leader said: "It was a farcical goal. The lad almost caught it as he went through."

With the Priory players physically and emotionally drained by the week's events, City extended their lead to 3-0 before Dave Roberts converted a late penalty.

Christchurch: Barfoot, Wells (Till, 55), Hodder, Hughes, Elliott, J Atkins, Czastka, Crutchley, Lawrence, Sotoudeh (D Roberts, h-t), Midgley (Puckett, 75). Unused subs: Moores, S Atkins.

Brockenhurst grabbed their first Wessex One win of the season with a 3-0 win over basement boys Portland United to move out of the bottom two.

Danny Jefferies, Paul White and Ian Saunders were on target, although new signing, ex-Saints striker Nicky Banger's debut was cut short by a thigh strain.

Assistant boss Chris Collinge believes Brock will now have the impetus to pull away from trouble after their poor start to the campaign. He said: "I don't envisage us being in the bottom two at the end of the season."

Brockenhurst: Houkes, Holt, Hillyer, Grace, Woodward, Kowalski (Manning, 65), Saunders, Jefferies (White, 75), Kemp, Gibbons, Banger (Mills, h-t).

Lymington Town edged to a 2-1 win over Bemerton.