Pete Stiles calls on Fareham Town to stop 'stupid' results following surprise loss at lowly Amesbury

The Reds crashed to a 3-1 defeat at rock bottom Amesbury, who had only ended a run of 11 straight losses against Bashley the previous weekend.

‘Playing against teams struggling at the bottom is our Achilles heel,’ said Stiles.

‘That's 10 points we have dropped against teams in the bottom five this season.

‘We have got to stop these stupid results because it is costing us.’

In addition to the Amesbury debacle, Fareham have lost at fifth bottom Shaftesbury this season and drawn with third bottom Bournemouth and fourth bottom Solent University.

‘Things went wrong for us from the start when we turned up with the wrong kit,’ Stiles reported of his side’s trip to Wiltshire.

‘They say poor preparation leads to poor performance and in this case it was true.

‘What is most frustrating is, apart from a couple of absentees, we couldn't have gone there with a stronger squad.

‘If we had taken our early chances we would have been out of sight.

‘Once we went 2-0 down at half-time, it was always going to be hard to get back.

'We pulled one goal back but we were nowhere near sharp enough.

‘It was a very lacklustre performance.’

The visitors gave themselves a lifeline with a goal on the hour mark.

Tom Settle tapped a free-kick across to ex-Pompey midfielder Lewis Stockford who rifled a shot into the top corner from 25 yards.

Fareham kept pushing but the home goalkeeper pulled off a string of outstanding saves.

A last-minute goal for the hosts finally sealed the Reds’ fate.