Ladies go back to basics

The Blues went down to a comprehensive 3-0 defeat at league-leaders Gillingham on Sunday as their stuttering form continues in the Premier League southern division.

That made it four defeats from their six fixtures so far this season.

Joint-boss Katie Poore knows that confidence is at a low ebb for her side at present.

She feels things need to be simplified for the team to get moving in the right direction.

And Poore is also looking to re-introduce the fun factor into the set-up to improve results.

She said: ‘We need to work on our end product, but we’ve also discussed about going back to basics and working on our confidence.

‘The confidence is lacking. The players know the ability is there – there’s just the need for the confidence to be able to do it.

‘We don’t have a game this week, so it’s a good opportunity to go back to basics and start doing the simple things right again.

‘And we also need to bring the fun back into it a bit as well, for them not to worry too much about what they’re doing because that brings added pressure.’

The result against Gillingham means Pompey have scored just a single goal in their past three outings.

That lack of potency is a concern and Poore is looking to make attacking additions to the squad to remedy the dearth of goals.

‘I don’t know (why there is a lack of goals). At the start of the season it all just happened but now it’s just not,’ said Poore.

‘It’s certainly not the personnel, but perhaps we need an added element of competition. We are looking for a striker, someone who can score goals for fun.

‘And the girls welcome that competition. They’ve always said they want players who will improve us.’

Poore felt Gillingham’s performance against her side showed exactly why they are league leaders.

Pompey matched them for periods of the game, but a lack of killer instinct again proved critical.

Poore said: ‘They are a very good Gillingham side.

‘They’re top of the league and from their performance you can see that’s completely deserved.

‘But they were very complimentary of the way we played. At times we played some good football, but were just lacking in the end product once again.

‘We were 2-0 down in the first half, and the second goal was really the killer.

‘But we started the second half very well and it was a really well-fought, fast-paced, physical game.

‘We’ll take the positives and go again.’

Pompey have no fixture this weekend and return to league action next week at Charlton.