Portland 3  Sturminster Marshall 2

Paul Maitland, Ryan Mole, Graham Duff, Craig MacLeod, John Elliot, Sam Mason, Phil Sweetland, Ross Humphrey, Rob Morley, Darrell Williams, Fedja Selimovic, Mark Henning, Paddy Coker, Danny Bagg

Stur goalscorers:  Ross Humphrey, Rob Morley

Stur star man: Graham Duff

Portland went in front after 4 minutes with a goal from John Lamb. A cross was deflected straight to the feet of the Portland player on the edge of the six-yard box and he made no mistake, slotting the ball past Paul Maitland and into the bottom left hand corner of the net. Stur were shaken by the early setback and a patched up defence looked shaky for a while, but they eventually began to get a foot hold in the contest and with Fedja Selimovic in particular causing problems for the Portland defence created chances of their own. Darrell Williams was unlucky not to grab an equaliser when he headed a Sam Mason corner just over the bar.

Portland extended their lead on the half hour mark with a goal from Ross Doigee. A quick, incisive passing movement cut through the Stur defence and Doigee gave Maitland no chance with a clinical finish from 10 yards out. The home side should have put the game beyond doubt shortly after this when a forward raced through and rounded the goalkeeper and shot weakly towards the unguarded net. Craig MacLeod cleared the danger. The let off seemed to spur Stur on and they reduced the arrears five minutes before the break. SAM Mason swung a corner in from the left and Ross Humphrey’s goal bound header was blocked. The ball fell behind Humphrey who swivelled and fired an over-the-shoulder volley into the top corner of the net.

Stur had the better of the opening minutes of the second half, and had a very strong penalty appeal turned down when the referee somehow did not what everyone else in the stadium saw and waved play on after a blatant hand ball in the Portland area. Ironically Portland broke away and the linesman awarded a penalty for an innocuous challenge by Craig MacLeod. Matt White scored the spot kick and so, instead of having their own chance from the spot to level the scores, Stur found themselves 3-1 down.

To their credit, Stur immediately set about trying to set right the injustice and gave themselves a chance of gaining a deserved point when Rob Morley’s deflected shot from the edge of the area flew past the stranded Portland keeper, but home side hung on to take the points.

Danny Bagg and Paddy Coker were promoted from the reserves to make their first team debuts in this fixture, and both acquitted themselves well.