ROSS DOIDGE bemoaned a sloppy penalty and poor defending that saw Portland United slip to a 2-0 home defeat to Bashley at the weekend in the Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division.

Two first-half goals from a Lewis Ross penalty and a shot from the edge of the box from Harrison White ended the Blues’ six-game unbeaten run.

Doidge, who captained the side, said: “We didn’t give ourselves the best chance going in 2-0 at half- time. It was a sloppy penalty and then poor defending for their second goal so it was an uphill task in the second half.”

The Blues improved during the second half and were unfortunate to not get a goal back.

When asked about what he made of the second-half performance Doidge said: “I think (Portland United manager Simon) Browne has obviously mixed it around a bit and personal, people have changed around and it seemed to work better and obviously we gave it a good go knowing we were 2-0 down.”

In the last minutes of the game Portland had several very close chances as Shane Evans, Lee Sharpe, Alex Godfrey and Aston Butcher nearly got a goal back for Portland.

Speaking of that late spell Doidge said: “Sometimes it is just not your day in front of goal.

“It is frustrating when you miss some good chances or the keeper is making good saves, to be fair to them they have made some good blocks some good saves the keeper was a good goalkeeper.”

However, Doidge remains positive despite the defeat, as he said: “There is no one here that is looking down, we want to look up we want to go up the league.

“We need a couple of wins rather than a couple of draws and then when you are a mid-table side that is the way it works you get a couple of wins it can prop you up a few places.”

Doidge was substituted immediately after half-time following a late challenge early on in the first half which he tried to run off.

Doidge explained: “I tried running it off but it didn’t really get much better so it was best that I came off.

“There was someone on the bench waiting to come on and they were fit and they can get up the pitch better than me.

“We will just have to wait and see how it is over the next coming days, maybe a week and just assess it then for the next game on Saturday.”

Portland are next in action when they face Bournemouth away on Saturday (3pm).