CHICKERELL UTD 5

PORTLAND UTD RES 1

CHICKERELL recorded an emphatic victory over Portland – ending the visitors’ seven-game unbeaten run in the process.

Neil Dewey opened the scoring for the Chickens with a sublime lob over Portland’s stand-in goalkeeper Callum Bigg before Paul Cole stabbed the ball home to bring Portland level.

The home side had dominated for much of the first half and arguably could have put the result beyond doubt in the first 45 minutes.

But following Portland’s equaliser, the hosts stepped up their performance with goals from Aaron Ryan, Warren White, Nick Etherington and Matt Harvey securing a convincing 5-1 win which pleased manager Steve Coward.

He said: “It was a good performance. We were the better side and deserved to win the game.

“We’ve had a really sluggish start to the season which everyone knows about but it’s just about trying to make a fresh start going into the New Year. We know we’ve got the ability and we know we’ve got the quality, but it just hasn’t happened.

“In the first half we should have been two or three goals up. We had a really good 20 minutes but just didn’t score. We let them get into the game for 20 minutes in the second half which made it 1-1 but we kicked up a gear and then we took our chances.

“We were the better side and deserved to win the game.

“It was a big derby game, some of our lads including myself have been at Portland before so it’s always going to be about bragging rights. You don’t need to say a lot to the players to get a performance out of them.”

Coward also singled out one player in particular who changed the game.

“We changed a couple of things in the middle of the park bringing on Aaron Ryan who is a young lad, but when you’re playing against tired legs on these pitches and you have an 18-year-old who is pretty rapid it’s hard to defend against and he did well.

“It was an all-round good performance. Sometimes you have those days when it clicks and it certainly did that on Saturday.”

Portland boss Justin Faulkner didn’t hide his disappointment with his side’s performance.

He said: “We didn’t get going at all, our passing and decision-making was off. All the lads are disappointed because we know we didn’t do ourselves justice.

“After they scored their second goal it seemed like we lost all belief, even though we were on top at the start of the second half, and that is unacceptable.

“All credit to Chickerell, they played very well and fielded probably the strongest team they have been able to field this season which is a compliment to us.

“I was let down by our goalkeeper late on Thursday night and we were not able to find a replacement despite everyone’s best efforts. I cannot fault Callum Bigg’s effort because he is an outfield player and made a few important saves.”

Chickerell: Bickerstaff, Tennant, James, Rogers, Miles, Protheroe, Harvey, Dewey, Hansford, Etherington, White. Subs: Ryan, Sandeman