BOURNEMOUTH POPPIES 2

Frost 42, Flynn 45

PORTLAND UNITED 1

Beasley 30

PORTLAND United fell to their first Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division defeat of the season courtesy of a 2-1 loss to Bournemouth Poppies at Victoria Park.

Brendon King’s men took the lead after 30 minutes when Jamie Beasley latched onto a superb lofted pass from Alex Godfrey to slot the ball home past Samuel Jones.

But Poppies conjured an immediate response when the Blues’ Sam Clarke gave away a foul in the penalty area, allowing new signing Ron Frost to fire past Jordan Tewkesbury for the equaliser.

On the stroke of half-time, Bournemouth edged ahead when poor defending offered Frost’s fellow summer signing Steve Flynn a chance, which he duly took for a 2-1 half-time lead.

Portland improved during the second period but could not unlock the Poppies’ defence, their best chance coming from a chaotic goalmouth scramble, which was eventually cleared by the hosts.

The Blues could not fashion any further opportunities of note as they slid to defeat, failing to back up a 1-0 opening-day win over Alresford Town.

Speaking to Echosport after the clash, King was disgruntled by the Blues’ performance.

He said: “I’m not going to beat around the bush, we got exactly what we deserved – nothing. We weren’t at the races, we weren’t good enough.

“We didn’t adapt to the pitch and they thoroughly deserved their win. On the night we were second best.

“The pitch wasn’t great so we weren’t able to play the football that we wanted to play. It was disappointing from our point of view.

“Second half we were a lot better, however, we huffed and puffed and apart from one goalmouth scramble cleared off the line we didn’t create enough chances.”

He added: “We didn’t do the ugly things good enough. We conceded a penalty for a foul by Sam, then they scored right on half-time – poor defending again as a unit.

“From being 1-0 up, albeit against the run of play, we’ve got to see those things out to half-time, but we didn’t. Second half, even if we got a goal out of it, we wouldn’t have deserved it.

“But we’ve got good players and we’ll bounce back, for sure.”

Poppies: Jones, Head, Speers, Langston, Elsom, Frost, Ohameje, Cooper, Finch, Flynn, Roushbaiani

Blues: Tewkesbury, Smith (L Clarke 60), Bessant, Halloran (M Buckler 60), Butcher, S Clarke, McKechnie, Doidge, Whyton, Godfrey (Read 80), Beasley. Sub not used: S Buckler