Blues beaten by Cardiff and Charlton
Pompey Ladies stretched their winless run in the league to six games with successive home defeats to title hopefuls Cardiff and Charlton.
Kerry Bartlett opened the scoring in a 5-1 victory for the Welsh side at Privett Park and Eilidh Currie missed a chance to equalise when her penalty was saved.
Chloe Chivers almost immediately extended the Bluebirds’ advantage before second half strikes from Laura Williams, Bartlett and Chivers wrapped things up.
Katie James teed-up Samantha Quayle to fire home a late reply for the hosts, but it proved to be no more than a consolation.
It was a similar story the following week, as Kim Dixon’s brace and a Rosey Sullivan effort ensured Charlton left the south coast with all three points.
Blues boss Jay Sadler said: “Cardiff are good at what they do, which is why there are where they are in the table and looking to win a league title. That’s somewhere we want to get to, but it’s going to take time.
“A few heads went down in the second half and passes went astray – and if you do that at this level then you’ll get punished.
“We’ve got a young team who are striving to get better. It will take hard work, but I know that these players will get there.
“I saw a lot of disappointed faces when I looked around the dressing room and people who want to reflect on the performance and put it right.
“We didn’t look far off Charlton and competed well with them at the start of the game, but our creativity in the final third let us down. There’s never an easy game in our league and we have to take our chances.”