Portsmouth bidding to bring back some of the 'feelgood factor' in London 3 South West meeting with Old Cranleighans

Portsmouth' s London 3 South West struggles continued on Saturday as they were condemned to a heavy 47-7 defeat at high-flying Warlingham.

That was a ninth loss in 10 games this season to leave Richards' side languishing second-bottom in the table.

The Portsmouth head coach admitted there is a feeling of the 'wind being taken' out of his squad after such a difficult start to the campaign.

Yet he is eyeing victory over ninth-placed Old Cranleighans to provide all connected with the club something to cheer in the lead up to the festive period.

Richards said: ‘At this point, if I’m honest, the points are irrelevant, it’s more of the need for the club to have a feelgood factor.

‘It’s not easy, we’ve played 10 games and lost nine, the whole feeling around the senior club - the wind has been knocked out of you - everything we thought was going to be positive isn’t.

‘We’re fighting every week to remain positive and the only real way of getting that is to win a game.

‘We’re definitely targeting Saturday as a game we want to try to win.’

The meeting with Old Cranleighans, on the back of an impressive home win over Old Georgians, cannot come quick enough for Portsmouth.

They did at least manage to register some points with 10 minutes left at Warlingham through Gareth Davies' converted try in a 47-7 defeat.

Richards added: ‘It was a tough afternoon. They (Warlingham) were physically dominant over us, as we suspected, they were a big side, strong set-piece, aggressive, we just didn’t really match that level of physicality at any point during the game. When you’re on the back foot like that you’re going to concede points.’