US Portsmouth boss Fraser Quirke hoping last week’s FA Vase result will do his Wessex League team talk for him

USP attempt to avoid a seventh successive league and cup loss when they host AFC Stoneham in the Wessex League Premier Division.

The fixture comes just a week after the two clubs met in the second qualifying round of the FA Vase - where the Purples dished out a 6-1 caning at Winklebury.

‘I’m hoping we can bounce back from that mauling,’ said Quirke. ‘Hopefully it won’t be the most challenging of team talks.

‘I’ll just be reminding them about the score last week and asking: can you be better, can you be more focussed, can you concentrate more?’

US enter the game having been knocked out of the Portsmouth Senior Cup in midweek, losing 3-1 at home to Fareham Town.

Quirke recalled: ‘It was ok actually. Though we lost, we were competitive and in the game for large parts of it.

‘It was 0-0 at half-time and we could quite easily have been in front.

‘It was a decent first half performance, there were green shoots of progress. The second half was a little bit more disappointing, but overall I was more pleased than I’ve been for a while. I wasn’t too despondent.’

Fareham keeper Luke Deacon produced fine first half stops from Kelvin Mathie and Dan Sibley.

The visitors took the lead when US switched off from a short corner and Jack Breed headed in at the near post.

Casey Bartlett-Scott doubled the lead before right-back Luke Richards brought US back into it with a fine strike from an acute angle. Ethan Fox restored Fareham’s two-goal lead.

Quirke was minus Kelly Nwaehi and Moussa Traore (both ill) while Connor Grant, Shawn Benjamin, Cameron Quirke and Ash Thompson were all absent for a variety of reasons.

Some of those could well return this weekend, while striker Brandon Jewell is available after his suspension finished. Tee Kanjanda, though, faces a few more weeks recovering from injury.

Fareham boss Graham Rix rested first team regulars Josh Benfield, Callum Benfield and Connor Underhill in midweek.

They could all return for this weekend’s home league game with Laverstock & Ford.

Rix handed a debut at US to left-back Dimitri Giannakis, who had recently contacted the club asking for a trial and who had played for the U23s the previous week.

‘It was a good performance (at US), I was delighted,’ said the manager. ‘We gave some of the younger lads a chance and they did well.

‘It’s a tough schedule - we’ve been playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday for several weeks now.

‘You only get the chance to work with the players on a Thursday, and you can’t do too much as it’s a recovery session.

‘A part-time hobby is taking up more and more of my time, but I’m really enjoying it. Pete Stiles has turned the place around in the last few years, there’s a good atmosphere there.’