‘We shot ourselves in the foot four times': Liam Daish on Portsmouth youngsters' cup exit at Farnborough

A youthful Pompey XI headed to Farnborough this evening seeking victory to secure a semi-final encounter at AFC Portchester.

For an hour the match was goalless, yet once the Blues’ resilience was finally broken on 60 minutes, the scoreline became emphatic.

And the Blues’ professional development phase coach was critical of his side’s defending during the final 30 minutes as their Southern League Premier South hosts ran out 4-0 winners.

Daish told The News: ‘Our strategy was to stay in the game, stay in it early, which we did, we came in at half-time goalless and I thought the lads now had a good idea of what they were playing against.

‘In the second half, I was looking for us to show a bit more composure and creativity in possession and we started that half really well – but the manner of the four goals we conceded was soft.

‘From the first right through to the fourth, I don’t think Farnborough really worked that hard to actually score the goals.

‘They were all goals we could have done better with and our hard work for an hour has gone down the drain.

‘We shot ourselves in the foot four times. You can get away with it at under-18 football sometimes, but not at this level, not against men, their finishing was clinical.’

Farnborough are presently second in a division which also contains sixth-place Gosport.

And Daish praised how his young side frustrated their experienced opponents for the opening hour.

He added: ‘The 16s that played were excellent, the schoolboys, but we needed a bit more from the older ones in terms of them just staying in the game and making the right decisions under pressure.

‘It was difficult, we have a few players out injured, but kept our shape and stuck to what we were looking to do.’

A message from the Editor, Mark Waldron

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