PORTLAND boss Kyle Critchell hopes his side’s stunning maiden victory of the season over Cowes Sports has got the ball rolling for the Blues.

Greg Borthwick led the way with two goals in Portland’s 5-1 thumping over the Isle of Wight outfit, Brin Doyle, Archie Woolford and Matt Harvey all on the scoresheet as well.

In their first five league games, the Islanders had taken four points, with victory over Cowes lifting them to 14th in the Wessex Premier League table.

Speaking after the game, Critchell told Portland’s media: “We’ve worked really hard to become the side that we’re trying to become.

“It’s a great victory and we’re buzzing, but hopefully that’s the start of many to come.

“I think we needed it, it’s been quite a challenging start to the season with the sides that we’ve played and hopefully that win now starts to reflect where hopefully we should be within the league.

“But the performance itself was fantastic and the work that we did really showed today. “That’s the most pleasing thing.”

Portland’s pre-match analysis of their opponents informed their training on Thursday evening, with Critchell looking to exploit Cowes’ midfield.

And the former Weymouth and Dorchester man felt that winning the midfield battle was decisive for Portland.

“I felt from midfield we were going to get a bit of joy, from the reports I had,” explained Critchell.

“We made a real, conscious effort on Thursday to work on getting the ball out wide, underlaps and overlaps from our two central midfielders, to really allow us to get up the pitch and make it difficult.

“Ultimately that’s what won us the game. It’s the fact our lads were willing to run both ways to create our goals and then to defensively make sure we were in a good, solid shape and structure.

“It ended up comfortable, but they’re a really good side.”

Critchell also felt his side showed composure, not only in front of goal, but all over the pitch.

He continued: “We’re working so much in training to improve those areas of our game, composure, when we need to play, when we need to go long.

“It comes down to decision making. There’s only so much that I can do during the game.

“By giving them the information they have to take that on board and make those decisions in the game. It came to fruition.

“We looked good going forward, defensively we looked solid, but that goes from 1-16, we’ve got lads pushing each other and really good attitudes.

“Long may that continue. That’s the standard we’ve set and hopefully we continue that going forwards.”