Horndean suffer punishing maiden defeat

Michael Birmingham admitted his team were easily second best by the final whistle.

‘I witnessed the proverbial game of two halves,’ said the boss.

‘For the first 25 minutes we were in control and were unfortunate to go in a goal down at the break.

‘In the second half we fell apart, playing kamikaze football. We killed ourselves.

‘Blackfield scored two quick goals and I have not seen anything like it.

‘Every time they scored it was following big errors from us.

‘They were ruthless going forward and made us pay.

‘It was men against boys in both boxes.

‘But even the best teams in the world get hammered at times and the important thing is to learn from it.

‘It is only our fourth defeat in the league since January and we are still a very young side.’

Baffins Milton Rovers slipped to a third successive league defeat after losing 2-0 at Lymington Town.

Coach Steve Weston felt the conditions worked against his side’s style of play.

He said: ‘We got there to find the pitch hadn’t been cut for a couple of weeks – there was six inches of grass on it!

‘Unsurprisingly Lymington, being a big side, hoofed the ball forward and pressed at set-pieces.

‘We struggled with that in the opening half-hour and conceded two sloppy goals.

‘When we changed our tactics and started to get the ball wide we dominated.

‘We had three or four chances and if we had converted one then we would have got a few more.’

Baffins’ hopes were dealt a blow 15 minutes from the end when Ollie Watts was sent off for retaliation.

Fareham Town’s poor run continued with a 2-1 defeat at Amesbury Town.

The Reds conceded twice in the opening 22 minutes before pulling a goal back on the half hour.

Callum Laycock slotted in after a knockdown from the returning Graham Lindsey.

Petersfield Town lost 8-1 at fellow strugglers Team Solent.