WHITCHURCH went down to their second league defeat of the season in a game that, while full of effort and no little skill, was all rather frenetic and devoid of clearcut scoring chances at both ends.

The visitors won two early corners that came to nothing before Brad Snelling saved from Jack Salter Vale. Danny Phillips’s pace and control worried the home defence and two Jack McCarthy free-kicks rebounded to safety off the defensive wall. Home keeper Luke Douglas juggled a long range effort from Ryan Lambert over his bar before the home side took the lead after 35 minutes. Simon Stone’s low cross from the left touchline travelled a long way and with the Whitchurch defence seemingly frozen, Andy Rinomhota scuffed the ball past Snelling from the edge of the six yard box.

Douglas held on to a Phillips effort and at the other end Snelling turned a piledriver from Stone over the bar as the first half ended.

Rinomhota pulled his shot horribly wide on the restart while three Whitchurch corners in quick succession came to nothing before Jamie Mansell fastened on to a long Snelling clearance but his shot beat Douglas and the far post.

Whitchurch were dominating the game for long periods, though they were grateful to Snelling for a point blank save that denied Sean Thurgood at the other end.

The Whitchurch corners continued to mount but the home defence stood firm though they will wonder how they survived one goalmouth scramble but the visitors’s tendency to rely on crosses rather than playing the ball along the ground played to a large extent into Portchester’s hands.

Josh Harfield outjumped the keeper but his header from an acute angle found only the side netting while a similar header from McCarthy landed on top of the net.

Adam Pearson added his height up front in the closing stages, Douglas saved from Rudi Plummer but the goal would not come and it was the home side who claimed the points.