Portsmouth paying the price for '˜basic mistakes'

PORTSMOUTH CITY suffered their fourth consecutive National League division two south defeat at the hands of London Aces last weekend.
Portsmouth City player/coach Nasser Ssemuwemba  Picture: Allan HutchingsPortsmouth City player/coach Nasser Ssemuwemba  Picture: Allan Hutchings
Portsmouth City player/coach Nasser Ssemuwemba Picture: Allan Hutchings

Despite a fantastic showing in the initial stages of the match, the City team were eventually overpowered by their hosts in straights sets.

Action at London’s Lambeth Academy, saw Portsmouth spring into an early 8-3 points lead by the first technical time out.

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And the visitors continued to impress with a combination of good attacking power and well-placed floating serves.

But just when it seemed as though the City team had rediscovered their winning form, the dreaded individual errors struck again to allow Aces to bounce back and win the opening set 25-23.

Basic mistakes both on and off court have proved to be Portsmouth’s undoing so far this season.

New signing Joan Francesc Cabreer Gomila said: ‘It was like a kick in the teeth.

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‘We looked very strong at the start of the first set and even if it was my first time to play with the rest of the team, it felt as though I had straight away gelled into the team.

‘It was a big shame that we let it slip through our hands.’

Portsmouth offered little sign of making a comeback after allowing their opponents to dominate play early on in the second set.

In spite of Francesc’s man-of-the-man performance, the former Spanish national league opposite player could not stop his side from losing both of the last two sets by a 25-16 scoreline.

Player/coach Nasser Ssemuwemba, though, refused to press the panic button after the match.

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He said: ‘I’m obviously disappointed with the overall result and were we are as a club at the moment.

‘I thought we made a good account of ourselves in the first set against a very decent team yet to lose a match.

‘We are going to work hard to try to iron out the mistakes that saw us lose track in the second and third sets.

‘I still believe there are more positives to take away from this loss than negatives.

‘We are working hard to get the new players gelled.

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‘Francesc is a quality addition to our team and we are still in search for more players to improve our squad.’

Portsmouth travel to the capital again this Sunday (2.45pm) to face former division one outfit London Lynx 2 at the University of East London – Sports Dock.