PORTLAND United boss Brendon King fears Bournemouth Poppies’ Victoria Park pitch could be a “leveller” in their Sydenhams Wessex Premier Division encounter tomorrow (3pm).

Currently, eight places and 22 points separate Portland in 10th from Poppies – the latter side having had a high turnover of players since last season.

But King has concerns the disparity in league position could be negated by the effects of Storm Dennis, which has saturated pitches across the country.

On facing Poppies, he told Echosport: “They’ve got a bit of a different side this season than they had last season.

“It’s always a tricky place to go and the surface is never very good up there.

“It’s one of them where, especially with all the rain we’ve had, hopefully we don’t get any more rain and the wind dries the pitch out. It’s notoriously not the greatest of surfaces.

“It will be a bit of a leveller, but sometimes you’ve got to go and roll your sleeves up and dig out a result.”

Portland have seen consecutive matches against Lymington and Totton & Eling fall foul to inclement weather.

“It’s very difficult when it’s like this in terms of getting any continuity together,” King said.

“You get games called off and can’t get a run together. First and foremost, let’s hope it’s on and we can get another game out of the way.

“What you do get with Poppies is their work rate is good. If you match that, you’ve got every chance of coming away with the points.”

Max Buckler is unavailable while Sean Stewart (back) and Ryan McKechnie (eye) continue to be assessed by the Blues.