PORTLAND Town Reserves are still seeking their first points of the season as they were beaten 5-3 at home by Redlands Rebels.

Town were defeated for the second time in five days under manager Steve Prout and Redlands took the lead midway through the half.

On the brink of half-time the Rebels scored a second before Town, slightly deflated by the loss of some players to injuries and non-availability, soon found themselves 3-0 down.

Portland's fightback started 15 minutes into the second half when Elliott Gould scored from close range for the 107th goal of his Town career.

Minutes later a superb performance from Ben Gilbert saw him top it off to score a fantastic goal making it 3-2, but any thoughts of levelling the game were thwarted when Redlands grabbed a fourth.

Town had hopes of salvaging a point when a foul in the box led to a penalty and Liam Puckett calmly sent the keeper the wrong way for 4-3.

Despite endless pressure from the Town boys they were caught pressing forward and right on the final whistle Redlands sealed the points with a fifth goal.

Man of the match: Ben Gilbert.