Borough left to rue ‘ridiculous’ misses
Gosport’s unbeaten Southern League start is ended
Gosport Borough's unbeaten start in the Southern League Premier South was ended by a disappointing 3-2 defeat by Walton Casuals at Privett Park.
Manager Shaun Gale, though very disappointed to lose, praised his side’s performance.
'We played very well and there were some great performances,' he declared.
'Of course it is frustrating because on another night we could have scored ten.
'If you don't take your chances and you give away silly goals then you are not going to win football matches.
'We gifted them all three of their goals by our mistakes.
'This season we will play a lot worse and win games.
'We had a ridiculous amount of chances without any end product.'
Borough's hopes of achieving a sixth successive clean sheet in the league were dashed after just five minutes.
The home side were caught out as Kyn Nicholas put the Stags into an early lead.
After this the home side created, but failed to take, a series of opportunities to level the scores.
On 17 minutes Ryan Woodford met a corner at the back post but sent his header over the bar.
Two minutes later Dan Wooden chased the visiting goalkeeper down. The loose ball fell to Bradley Tarbuck wide on the right but his effort narrowly missed the open goal.
Chances continued to fall to Borough and Christian Oxlade-Chamberlain was the next to shoot wide from inside the area.
On 28 minutes Borough replaced Jordan Rose with ex-Portsmouth defender Matt Casey.
Another chance fell to Tarbuck on the edge of the area but his curling shot flew narrowly over.
Borough went closest on the stroke of half-time when a Woodford header from a corner struck the crossbar.
The catalogue of missed chances for the hosts continued after the break.
Within a minute of the restart Wooden flicked on a Harry Kavanagh cross but Tarbuck failed to make contact at the far post.
Borough found themselves with a mountain to climb on 56 minutes when Zidan Akers extended Walton’s lead.
Within three minutes Wooden gave the hosts a lifeline, poking home a Kavanagh cross.
However the lifeline was quickly snatched away within six minutes when
Nicholas struck for his second goal.
Tarbuck had another chance to put his side back in the game but missed the target again when one-onone with the goalkeeper.
Five minutes into stoppage-time Oxlade-Chamberlain headed in a cross from the left, but it was too little too late.
'I'm not happy about losing and neither are the players,' said Gale.
'We know the way we want to play and that is to produce expansive football. 'I am not going to lose any sleep over this result, the same way I didn't get carried away when we went top of the league last week.
'There is a long season ahead and it is going to be a bumpy ride at times.
'The key is not to dwell on it but learn from it instead.
'It was just one of those nights.'
Gosport Borough: O'Flaherty, Kavanagh, Woodford, Rose (Casey 28), Williams, Bailey, Storey, McCreadie, Oxlade-Chamberlain, Tarbuck, Wooden (Paterson 75).