Halstead Town boss Mark McLean felt the way his team came back from a three-goal deficit to draw with Witham Town in their pre-season clash showed the progression they have made in the last 12 months.

Having fallen behind to a Sam Ashford hat-trick, the Humbugs hit back at the Milbank Stadium with strikes from Cameron Storie, Tom Cook and Joe Jones to secure a 3-3 draw.

It was an impressive response as they continue building towards the start of the Thurlow Nunn League division one south season and McLean felt the way they came back from a hesitant start demonstrated the strength he now has in his squad.

McLean said: "You have to be careful when you're playing sides who are two or three levels above you.

"You know they will punish you if you give them free moments but you don't want to be fearful and I felt our lads didn't get that balance in the first five to ten minutes.

"Witham scored and could have had more so it looked ominous, but I felt we grew into the game.

"You want those tests, though, and I felt we were excellent against Witham.

"We had six or seven very good players who weren't with us and we still challenged them.

"We have a squad that is exactly where I want it to be with a lot of very good footballers and I think it looks a lot more rounded now than last year.

"We enjoyed a lot of what we did in the league last year, but I felt we were very naive out of possession.

"However, we had good shape in there against Witham, which we didn't have last year.

"Witham came to us at the same time last year, they weren't as good then as they were this time and they beat us 3-0; they looked better this time and we drew 3-3 so that tells me the progression we've made.

"It was the shape we had that really pleased me.

"There was a bit of naivety early on with some rustiness, but as the game wore on, our decision making was much sharper and I think you could see how good we were in possession.

"But when it broke down, we got goal-side and got our shape so that was very pleasing.

"Teams like Witham look for the weakness in you, but it wasn't there."

There was a blow for Halstead in the second half, though, as striker Storie had to be stretchered off after sustaining an ankle injury and McLean said it was bad luck for both his player and the club.

"It was such a shame because Cameron had just scored a goal for us," added the Town boss.

"He was playing that number nine position really well and it was just unfortunate that something like that happened.

"Cameron found himself going one-on-one with their boy, who put a challenge in.

"He didn't connect with him but his leg just got trapped behind and he came down on it as his foot stuck - it was so innocuous and so unlucky."