WARREN Kenna made one heck of an early impact considering he wasn’t originally down to start for Lymington Town against AFC Portchester on Saturday.

The former Eastleigh and AFC Totton set-piece specialist, now part of Lymo’s management team, scored two and set up one as the Foresters ended Portchester’s impressive 12-match unbeaten run with a 3-1 Sydenhams Premier victory at the Sports Ground.

“Warren wasn’t going to play at first but we had to shuffle things around when young Oakley Hanger pulled up injured in the warm-up,” manager John Pyatt explained.

“We knew Portchester had pace down the flanks and we’d intended to play Sam Roberts at left-back and Oakley at right-back.

But then Oakley pulled out, so Sam moved across to the right and Warren played left-back.

“He’s a hell of a dead-ball specialist and all three of our goals were from his set- pieces.”

Lymington’s early opener appeared to be headed in by Jordan Rose, but the ball had already gone over the line direct from Kenna’s corner.

That lead was doubled on 12 minutes when Kenna’s long, floated free-kick was nodded back across the box and, with three home players queueing up to score, it was Harrison Weeks who got in first.

With Portchester still rocking, Kenna struck again with a whipped-in corner that was caught by the wind and flew straight in.

Graham Rix’s visitors were a different proposition after the break, hitting the crossbar three times through Eliot Roberts (twice) and Joe Noakes before finally pulling one back on 70 minutes when Jamie Musselwhite stabbed home amid a goalmouth scramble.

Substitute Roberts went close again with a volley, but it was too little too late for the Royals who had been completely blown away by Lymington’s powerhouse start.

“We knew they were a good, organised, strong side, so we decided to get at them from the first whistle,” said Pyatt. “To be fair to Portchester they didn’t lie down and they had us under the cosh for a large part of the second half.

“But it could easily have been 4-0 to us at half-time when James Davis’s header brought a remarkable save from their ’keeper and it’s gone back to JD who put it wide.”

Lymington – away to Whitchurch United tomorrow (Wednesday) – are now three points behind Portchester in sixth.