PORTLAND United were knocked out of the Dorset Senior Cup after holders Poole Town beat them convincingly 4-1 on Tuesday night at the Weyline Stadium.

The Blues started the game brightly and forced the Poole goalkeeper into an early save.

However, it was the Dolphins who broke the deadlock after just five minutes. Harry Baker was one on one with Portland goalkeeper Steve Boore, the former took it round the ‘keeper and scored to make it 1-0.

The visitors continued to dominate after scoring until, after 20 minutes, James Cox equalised with an exquisite finish from the edge of the box.

It didn’t take long for Poole to respond though as just ten minutes later, Adam Grange scored with a volley from inside the box to restore his side’s lead and ensure Poole went into half-time winning.

Portland came close to a second equaliser in the 63rd minute as Jamie Beasley crashed an effort against the frame of the goal.

Five minutes later and Poole gave their hosts a mountain to climb as Sam Jackson converted a corner, making the score 3-1.

Things went from bad to worse for Portland as Sean Bessant was sin-binned after 69 minutes and the final nail was put in the coffin when Ollie Dennett scored Poole’s fourth with fifteen minutes to go.

Poole will now face Weymouth in the next round of the Dorset Senior Cup and Portland will return to league action against AFC Portchester on Saturday.

Speaking to Echosport, Portland boss Brendon King said: “It was a really good exercise for us, playing a side that has aspirations of getting promotion from the Southern League.

“For us to come against that gives us a really good test and one that, for a part of the game, we were well in.

“When it was 1-1 we were pushing. For half an hour of the game we were really good and we matched them.

“We played some good football at times. They had more sharpness and their movement was better.

“Come the end of the game we could take some really good positives out of it. We lost 4-1 and we probably deserved to lose 4-1 but there is some positives to take.

“We have a really hard game on Saturday and if we can take some of the things from (Tuesday night) into Saturday’s game we will do well.”

Speaking about the Sean Bessant’s sin bin, King said: “It was a bit of ill discipline. We have to stop those things.”

Attendance: 119

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