Speaking after yesterday’s 2-0 defeat to a resolute Notts County side, manager Micky Adams felt that although the team performed well in the second half, the Valiant’s first half performance was not good enough.

He said: “It was an amazing second half that’s for sure, but I’m disappointed with the first half. You can’t come out as sloppy as we did, we gave them a goal with a careless pass and I just think our passing and the way we went about our business wasn’t right.

“It was as if we just had to turn up and play and that wasn’t good enough. Second half was a lot better, we did everything right other than score a goal.

“For the first goal we gave a sloppy pass away on the edge of our own box from a corner, they broke on us and it deflected in.

“I wouldn’t have said there was a mountain to climb, but certainly we needed to come out and play which we didn’t.

“Looking back at the second goal, for me the lad shouldn’t have been on the pitch. It was our throw-in for a start which the officials got wrong, and then he threw or kicked the ball into the terracing.

“He’d already just been booked, so for me if they’d have been paying attention it would have been another yellow card and he’d have been off the pitch before the free-kick.”

The second half performance improved significantly with a number of great chances being made, Adams felt that this was down to a double substitution which saw the introduction of Colin Daniel and Byron Moore, the latter making his debut for the team.

He explained: “I thought that Colin and Byron injected pace into the game when they came on. Colin was unlucky not to have scored and I’m really excited about Byron.

“I think there’s potential there for him to be on that right hand side creating havoc. He looks a beautiful mover with the ball and he did some nice things today.”

On a final note Micky added: “We’ll lick our wounds, it’s not nice losing a game of football, but I was pleased with the second half performance and I can live with that.”