Portland manager Kyle Critchell has heaped praised on his young squad despite defeat to high-flying Portchester at the weekend. 

The Blues have been hit with a mounting injury list in recent weeks and could only name 14 players as they came up against one of the league's richest and biggest clubs.

The Royals may have beaten Critchell's side 3-0 at the Camp and Satherley, but the Blues boss believes his team did themselves proud with under 18 player Tom Peach making his debut for the club.

Speaking to Echosport, he said: "In terms of how the two clubs are run, we are in different leagues, but our performance was a positive one with six first team players unavailable. 

"We gave Tom his debut and he did well and considering we were down to 14 players, I think we did brilliantly.

"We were 1-0 down at the break, but we could have been ahead I am very proud of that performance. 

He added: "I think the club can be proud as well, the gap between our first team and reserve team is not as big as some other clubs in the league.

"Some of these players coming in do not train with us or have not played with us before, so we only get an hour before the game with them - they have been excellent."