PORTLAND United boss Brendon King was agitated by a slack second-half display despite the Blues seeing off Bournemouth Poppies 5-2 at the Weyline Stadium.

King’s men went 4-0 up at the break through braces for Jamie Symes and Ryan McKechnie and squandered chances to add to that lead in an impressive first-half performance.

However, a drop in intensity from the hosts revived Poppies, who made it 4-2 and rattled the woodwork either side of Josh Williams’ 88th-minute strike.

Speaking to Echosport, King did not hide his displeasure at what he perceived to be the Blues’ “complacency”.

He said: “I’m not very happy. We played some really good stuff in the first half an hour and got our noses ahead 3-0, it could’ve been a few more.

“Then we stopped for 15 minutes at the end of the first half. We stopped our intensity, we got sloppy, complacent, lazy and allowed them some possession of the ball.

“They created a couple of half chances and we got a fourth just before half-time – that’s purely because of Jamie’s hard work closing down the goalkeeper.

“We’ve gone in 4-0 and we did say at half-time that’s sloppy and they’re not going to give up. Fair to play to them (Poppies) worked really hard all game.

“Some teams would’ve gone, but they came out and got a goal. We’ve won the game 5-2 and we’ve just had a row in the changing room – that’s a good thing.

“In really bad conditions with that wind, we played some good stuff, but we should be doing it more. We expect a little bit better from the lads.”

Normally reluctant to praise individual players, King highlighted the displays of Symes and Williams as outstanding.

He said: “I thought Symesy led the line really well and Josh covered every blade of grass out there.

“There were some good performances, that’s a good thing to take out of it. It was a difficult night at times in those conditions but Symesy and Josh were outstanding.

“Symesy is such a clever footballer and Josh has been doing that for a few weeks now, getting about the pitch – he’s a bit of an unsung hero in there.”