Petersfield Town suffered late heartbreak as they lost 2-1 at home to United Services Portsmouth in their opening Wessex League Premier Division game of the season.

The Rams trailed 1-0 at the break through Dylan Holgate's 34th-minute goal, but the home side upped the tempo in the second half and produced a much-improved performance.

Petersfield put plenty of pressure on the visitors, but it looked like the equaliser would not come after a host of missed chances.

The pressure eventually told when Matty Dougan smashed home a sensational half-volley in stoppage time to get the Rams back on level terms.

Petersfield then pushed for a winner, but United Services Portsmouth launched a quick counter-attack and won a late penalty.

Simon Woods confidently converted the stoppage-time spot-kick to give the visitors the three points.

Despite the defeat, Rams boss Connor Hoare was pleased with his side's second-half performance and saw plenty of positives to take forward.

"There were three things we emphasised to the players before the game – freedom, discipline and intent," said Hoare.

"At half-time I said there was no intent. It felt like we were slow to create space. I told the boys once you've broken the pressure it needs to feel like more of a counter-attack – and that's what we did in the second half.

"There were more runs in behind and the lads managed to recognise the situation of the game and put more pressure on the ball in areas that we wanted to – because we didn't do that enough in the first half either.

"We will create a lot of chances this season – as we have done throughout the past year. It's just about converting them and not getting frustrated when things aren't going our way.

"We have to recognise what stage of the game we're in, how the game is feeling and not get drawn into the emotion of it too much.

"We need to play the way we play and continue to do the things we work on – because they clearly work."

Hoare also praised Dougan for his superb strike.

"Matty has got that in him to be fair," said Hoare. "I probably give Matty more of a hard time than any other player because he can do stuff like that – he's got real quality."