BROCKENHURST 2

PORTLAND UNITED 1

PORTLAND United boss Simon Browne was left frustrated after the Blues suffered a 2-1 defeat away to Brockenhurst in their Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division fixture.

A Matt Sheedy brace proved sufficient for the Badgers to record their sixth win from nine games, holding on despite a Ross Doidge goal and a Ryan McKechnie effort that thumped the inside of the post, bouncing to safety.

Speaking to Echosport, Browne was not concerned with the manner of the Blues’ display, but added that his team made more mistakes than their hosts.

He said: “It was frustrating because actually we didn’t play that bad. We’re obviously disappointed to lose the game and we conceded two goals that were avoidable.

“They’re not a bad side, Brockenhurst. They’re quite decent and a couple of lads up front caused us problems. We had no Sanchez Baker or Lewis Clarke and Ross couldn’t start, so we had to change the side around.

“It was disappointing to concede the goals in the way we did. It was one of those games where whoever made the fewer mistakes was going to profit, and they made fewer mistakes than we did.”

Commenting on the concession of Brockenhurst’s first goal, Browne was unhappy with the speed at which a Blues attack turned to a goal at the other end.

“We had a free-kick on the edge of their box and the left-back won the header and he’s slipped their forward through and it was 1-0. Literally within 10 seconds after taking the kick we were 1-0 down,” he said.

“We created a few half chances and the keeper made a decent save from Sol in the first half. Then they’ve run down the right and their lad who scored the first goal slammed it in with 20 minute to go.

“Ross equalised with a screamer within a few minutes and Ryan cut inside from the left and it hit the inside of the post and bounced back out.

“They were rattled and had it gone in I would have backed us to win the game. We then put Lewis up front and we were practically playing with four up top but they saw it out,” he said.

And Browne is eager for Portland to get similar mistakes “out of our system” for future games.

He said: “We haven’t got stuffed, we have got beaten by a side that made less mistakes than we did. If we can get those out of our system we’ll hopefully be better than that in the future.”

Blues: Lillington, Smith, Bessant, Butcher, S Buckler, Halloran, Mitchell (Camp 80), McKechnie, Ayunga (Whyton 65), Godfrey, Payne (Doidge). Sub not used: Morris