Portsmouth Women's boss: Refereeing standards need to be improvedÂ

The Pompey Women's boss was left seething by the official's performance after his side crashed out of the National League Plate.

The Blues suffered a 2-1 defeat at Keynsham, exiting in the second round of the competition on Sunday. 

Sadler rued the referee's display during Pompey's loss '“ although he didn't use it as an excuse for his side's defeat.

However, the manager wants to see the FA and the local county FAs ensure the standard of officiating is raised.

'˜Again, the officiating was appalling at this standard '“ I'll happily say it,' said Sadler. 

'˜It wasn't the main benefactor for the result and we've got to give Keynesham credit because they won the game.

'˜But if people are going to take the women's game seriously and this level seriously then officiating needs to be of a good enough standard. 

'˜The FA and the local counties have got to see that.

'˜On Sunday, the referee had blatantly refereed the team before and there was a home bias and it's appalling.

'˜It's not just for myself, the girls are disappointed by it and I've seen other teams disappointed by it.

'˜Someone needs to start taking a stand and say it. 

'˜I'm not afraid to say that it was appalling. 

'˜However, away from that, we've got to control our controlables.

'˜We had chances to win the game, we didn't and we had a chance to maybe take the game into extra-time and didn't.'

Pompey took the lead through Katie James on 11 minutes.

However, Keynsham equalised through Kirsten Rendell shortly before the half-time interval.

The visitors had a surplus of chances to regain their advantage in the second period but failed to make their pressure count.

The Blues were made to pay when Ellie Curson netted a 92nd-minute winner to dump the visitors out of the competition. 

Sadler was proud of his side's performance but bemoaned the chances his troops wasted.

The boss added: '˜It was difficult to take in the 92nd minute to lose it.

'˜It was a wonderful goal to put it into the top corner but we're disappointed.

'˜They had a 15-minute spell in the whole of the game when they put us under pressure. 

'˜For 25 minutes we really took it to them. We had countless opportunities, missed a couple of sitters and had a couple of decisions that didn't go our way.

'˜But I was proud of the performance. The girls applied themselves well in the game.

'˜We went to a team that averages seven goals a game and we managed to nullify them, but unfortunately were on the wrong end of the defeat. 

'˜We need to be ruthless '“ it's simple.

'˜We had chances on the edge of the box, opportunities when we should have squared it and have been a little bit too selfish. But even at 2-1 down we create opportunities again.

'˜We're disappointed we didn't win the game.'