DESPITE sitting two points adrift of leaders Westland Sports, Portland United boss Stuart Heath declared his side’s start to the season as less than satisfactory.
The Blues, beaten at home by fellow high-fliers Wincan-ton Town last weekend, have dropped eight Magna Dorset Premier League points in eight games to date.
Tomorrow they visit a resurgent Blandford (3pm), aiming to bounce back at the first attempt.
Heath said: “We’ve not started the season as well as we wanted to in terms of results and performances.
“With that comes criticism and some have already written us off. But we have to take that criticism and be strong enough to turn our results and performances to a more consistent level.
“I have full faith that the players will do that over the season.
“We are still in a good position but we accept we have not started the season as we wanted to. We are not far away from where we want to be, it might just be a case of changing things slightly.”
Previewing tomorrow’s clash, the manager added: “Blandford started slowly but in the last couple of the games they’ve really improved, like I thought they would do.
“Last Saturday’s win over Holt was particularly impressive and Blandford is always a tricky place to go. So we are expecting a tough game.”
Chickerell United will be without Dan Welch and Warren White for their home clash against struggling Hamworthy United Reserves at Weymouth College (3pm).
The Chickens have won five on the spin but boss Maurice Welch is not taking the third-bottom Hammers lightly.
He said: “The last thing we can afford to do tomorrow is go into the game with the wrong attitude, thinking it is going to be easy.
“You cannot afford to do that against anyone at this level and if you do, more often than not, you get punished.
“Warren and Dan are both unavailable but we should have Antony Carlile back.
“Hopefully, we can put on another good showing and come away with the win.”
Following five successive defeats, Weymouth Res-erves will be out to try and turn the corner at Poole Borough (3pm).
Luke Winsper, Liam Rob-erts and Owen Kirlew are all back in contention for the Terras and joint-boss Jake Richmond is looking forward to the encounter.
He said: “Poole Borough is always a tough place to go but as far as I am aware we have a full-strength squad to choose from, so hopefully we can go there and put in a good performance.”
Bridport Reserves travel to reigning champions Hamworthy Recreation (3pm).
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