Bognor head to Lewes being told: Be braver

The Bognor coach said they knew they didn’t do enough to hurt the league leaders – but were capable of much higher standards that hey must now show, starting at the Dripping Pan on Saturday and at home to Merstham on Monday.

Blake said: “We were okay for about 25 minutes. We got the goal and there was nothing in the game.

“But we are so naive - we switched off on a free-kick. They play a quick ball, there’s no-one stop it, and it results in a goal.

“Against teams at their level, you can’t afford to give them a leg-up.

“We just weren’t good enough and didn’t play enough football. We got a bit of a lesson in the second half.”

Blake admitted the Rocks felt the absence of four key players although he praised young Pompey duo Harvey Hughes and Dan Gifford, who were thrown straight into debuts.

But he said: “We weren’t brave enough on the ball. Every time we had the ball in midfield we gave it away.

“Those are the things we have to sort out and hopefully we can sort them quickly.

“We have to try to get on to a bit of a run. Confidence will be dented because of this result but we have a massive game Saturday. We will try to go there and get a result in a difficult game.”

Blake said striker Nathan Odokonyero and defender James Crane should be fit to return to the squad at fourth-placed Lewes.