PORTLAND UTD RES 0

SHAFTESBURY TOWN RES 4

A DEPLETED Portland United Reserves’ torrid end to the season continued with a 4-0 loss to Shaftesbury Town Reserves in the Dorset Premier League at the Weyline Stadium.

Shaftesbury led at half-time in a game played in gale force winds when a speculative effort was parried by Portland goalkeeper Ross Jones to leave the Shaftesbury frontman a simple tap in.

Josh Camp could have levelled for the Blues, but the away keeper kept him out when put in one on one.

Shaftesbury celebrated being a goal up at half-time, as they were then able to play with the wind at their backs.

Their celebrations were not premature as they rattled in three more in the second half.

Looking back at the game, Portland United Reserves manager Justin Faulkner was livid at the result, believing some of his squad are proving not good enough for the league.

Faulkner said: “It was a very bad day at the office, for the opening 15 minutes there wasn’t any other team in this game and it looked like it was a case of how many we would win by, but all credit to Shaftesbury they wanted far more than our players and that is the more disappointing thing.

“We do have a lot of youngsters and they need to learn pretty quickly if you want to succeed at any level the minimum is hard work and graft, something this team has not got at the moment.”

“We were seriously depleted, I did not really want to use that terminology but the players that are turning out at the moment are proving themselves not good enough for Dorset Premier League football. It is a physical league and it is not acceptable to go hiding or start dangling legs and not making challenges. Some of the squad has got an attitude that ‘it’s ok to lose’, which is very frightening and that comes from the non-competitive youth football.

“On the plus side we have had four of our players play Wessex League Football, with so many of the first team missing it is a good opportunity for them to get some experience and put themselves in Brendon’s (King, first team boss) thinking. But the falling numbers of the first team has had an impact on us and has cost us results recently, after a good start where it looked like top six could be achievable and now it looks like we are playing for top 12 with the teams sat 15th to 17th who could be relegated. There needs to be a big improvement, like I said this is not acceptable.”

Portland United Reserves: Jones, Norman, Hankin, Anstey, T Butcher, Frost (Boatswain), Mitchell, Beals (Gould), Ryan, Stavrianos, Camp.

CONTACT US:

t: 01305 830990

e: sport

@dorsetectho.co.uk

twitter: @Dorsetechosport