Whitchurch United 0, Portland United 1

UNLUCKY Whitchurch produced one of their best performances of the season only to be caught out by a real smash and grab raid by JWL high-flyers Portland at Longmeadow last Saturday.

Brian Drury's side are still four points adrift at the bottom of the JWL table after Portland stole the points with a breakaway goal with just over a hour gone from James Reeve.

Whitchurch, thrashed 5-0 at Portland earlier in the season, could have settled for a much-needed point but having dominated the first half they decided to go for it in the second - and were ultimately punished for it.

"It was so close," said Drury. "We've played quite well in our last few games but we've just not done enough to win them. It's been encouraging, Dave Smalley in goal never had to make a save but they got the goal and that made all the difference."

It came in the 68th minute after Whitchurch had won a free kick on the edge of the Portland penalty area. They sent all their big men forward but the free kick went straight into the arms of the 'keeper and he promptly launched the ball down the other end for Portland to catch Whitchurch out with a knockout counter-punch.

"It was the only chance they had," added Drury. "We could have settled for the point but, naively or not, we tried to win the game."

It was the second game in a row that Whitchurch have lost by the odd goal with them having gone out of the JWL League Cup earlier in the week 3-0 on aggregate after losing 1-0 away to Thatcham Town in the return leg.

Whitchurch United (4-4-2): Smalley; Rees, Morris, Shaughnessy, Paul Fox; Restell, Mark Drury, Mark Fox, Chris Iddles; Robinson, Page. Subs: Alex Iddles (for Restell 65 mins); Kemp (for Robinson 75 mins).