Portsmouth FC’s first fixture in the Barclays Women’s Championship was a challenging one, as Jay Sadler’s side suffered a 3-0 defeat at the hands of an unforgiving Charlton Athletic squad.

The Halfway Line heard from Pompey’s head coach, Sadler, after the difficult game drew to a close. The Blues boss discussed the focal points for his team going forward, and what positives can be taken despite the loss.

Having conceded all three goals in the opening 25 minutes of the match, Sadler declared “I thought the first 24 minutes were just an eye-opener for all players, all staff. Welcome to the pro game, welcome to the Championship.”

In spite of the challenge staring them in the face, Pompey came out after half-time looking like a side reborn. Whilst they didn’t manage to come close to levelling the scoreline, one of the league’s newest additions managed to prevent one of the league’s mainstays from finding the back of the net any further.

“I think we showed a little bit of heart and character to get through to half-time, regrouped, and we showed a little bit more about what we are in the second half, but the game was kind of gone at the half time stage,” explained the manager.

The impassioned boss went on to say, “I was really disappointed. It’s taken us a long, long time to get to this stage, to be a Championship club with so many travelling away fans. And, I thought we let them down. We let ourselves down, and we had to understand that and come out to play for a little bit of pride.”

“I think we did that,” praised the south coast anchor, “And I think in moments where we did get pressure on the ball, we turned them over. I think we did have moments in the game where we moved the ball and we showed what we were about, which is what we want.” 

“So, first half, we’ve got to take it as a lesson, and a hard lesson,” summarised Sadler, “The second half, we’ve got to use as a bit of a foundation to springboard into next week against Durham.”

The Portsmouth head coach appeared proud of his side’s efforts in the latter half of the clash, although frustrated with their display earlier on. “When we changed the system up and we asked a little bit different of the players, we got a lot out,”  highlighted Sadler.

“We now need to use that second half performance collectively more than individually to springboard into the upcoming games,” Sadler asserted as Pompey now prepare to take on Durham, who beat Sheffield United 2-1 in their own season opener.

The head coach professed that the preparation over the coming week will maintain a focus on the mental aspect of Portsmouth’s game.

He said, “We’ll work a lot with our psychologists to understand why we looked like a rabbit in headlights for the first 24 minutes when we’ve spoken a lot about this moment,” stated the manager.

Sadler seemed exasperated that his side hadn’t made the most of their opportunity on this occasion, but adamant that it would only spur them on to do so in future, as they look to take their initial campaign in the second tier to the next level.