Pompey Academy continued their inconsistent start to the season by losing 4-2 at Sutton in the Youth Alliance League. The hosts took the lead, but Reggie Buckland and Chinedu Agu combined neatly to find Max Hammond, who fired home a leveller. Sutton quickly restored their advantage, however, and then added a couple more goals in the second half. Agu drilled a late effort into the bottom corner of the net, although it proved no more than a consolation for the young Blues. Lead professional development phase coach Sam Hudson said: “We’ve been conceding quite a lot of goals this season and that’s always going to make it more difficult to get something from the game. “There are moments when we need to take a bit more pride in our defending and make sure we throw bodies on the line. “It doesn’t matter whether it’s individually, in units or when we’ve got everyone back in the box, we need to improve. “I’d challenged the lads to be better in possession than in recent games and we were, managing to hit the front line quite directly. “But then they need to do more to secure the ball and help us get up the pitch, while the midfield needed to do more in terms of retention to stop there being so many turnovers. “After conceding the opener from our own corner – which was disappointing – we fought to get back into the game. “It was a lovely equaliser that saw us carve our opponents, but then 90 seconds later we’re picking one out of our own net again. “We had all of the ball in the final 15 minutes or so and got a goal back. We then hit the post and it could have been an interesting ending. “It was all a case of too little, too late by that point, though, and we were left wondering where that performance had been for the rest of the game. “Managing key moments is proving to be a bit of a challenge at the moment and we can’t rely on needing to score three or four in order to get a result.” Pompey: Conal McDermott; Dimani Kearney (Beau Mullins 43), Ashton Sizer (George Wilson 66), Reggie Buckland, Ciaran Martin; Jakub Jablonski, Fraser Thomas (Dexter Lee 61); Jermaine Osifo (Julian Korsah 75), Chinedu Agu, Dane Bailey; Max Hammond
