The omens were not good from the start - unavailabilities (with gold-starred, underlined, knobs on) meant that the squad were going to have to work hard from the start and for the whole game to make inroads into a Portsmouth side whose form in Division 1 would make life difficult for the visitors.

Ostensibly a 'B' squad fixture for the home side, a home spectator was overheard to query why this was not the case - again a poor omen.
 
It is also a truism that any side in any sport needs a positive mental attitude to compete - something that was sadly lacking in the warm up, pre-match preparation and unfortunately on the pitch itself for the duration of the game. Despite exhortations from the captain, coaches and spectating parents, if the mental capabilities are missing, once scores go against a team, heads go down and from there, it is almost impossible to raise the game in any way.
 
Portsmouth took full advantage of poor tackling, laboured rucking, standoff-ish pressurising and under-pressure scrummaging to open a 40-0 half time lead.
 
The second half was very much an improvement on the first but some sympathetic refereeing, welcomed offer of replacement players from the home side and two scores gave some semblance of pride to the red-shirted visitors. Unfortunately, Alton cannot even claim the scores that were made, for both tries were made by Portsmouth players in the disguised form of the red shirt.
 
Perhaps it was too much Easter chocolate; perhaps too many days away from rugby; perhaps it was 'just one of those days' but nonetheless, the result showed that Alton were out-played and out-thought in all aspects of the match.
 
But the positives did appear - Captain Arran Watkins tried his hardest to show how it should be done - tackling, harrying, ball carrying. Harry Boll did the close contact tackling to try and stem the tide and Chris Miles never gave up, chasing down kicks and players but overall, this was a match that the team should try and file away under 'F' for 'Forget'.