WHILE it wasn't the performance that he was looking for from his team, Witham Town manager Mark Ashford said he had learned some important lessons from their pre-season trip to Harwich and Parkeston.

Witham were beaten 2-1 by the Thurlow Nunn League division one south new boys as an early goal by Town's Johnny Ashman was cancelled out by a sublime Sean Mathurin strike, before Ben Hammond capitalised on hesitation in the visitors' defence to give the Shrimpers the winning goal.

It wasn't a display that Ashford was happy with, especially after being encouraged by his team's 7-1 win at Haverhill Borough and a 5-1 victory at Sawbridgeworth Town in their previous two games.

However, he admitted that what he had learned from the encounter at the Royal Oak could be invaluable as he continued preparations for his first season in charge of Witham.

“We didn’t play very well and not just because of the scoreline," said Ashford.

“It was a very different display from the first two pre-season performances and there was no real tempo to our game.

“Maybe people had got a bit complacent because we’d won 5-1 and 7-1 in the first two games of pre-season against two reasonable teams.

“To win 5-1 at Sawbridgeworth on Saturday was a good result as they’ll have aspirations of getting promoted from the Essex Senior League this year and maybe some got complacent after that.

“We also had a few players missing, with some on holiday and some not able to get away from work, but nevertheless, we should have had enough in our locker to have controlled that game.

“We didn’t do that, though.

“I said to the players at half-time that they just weren’t recognising the game.

“They were trying to force the things that we’ve been working on in training, even if they weren’t on, but you have to recognise what the opposition are doing.

“They were dropping off and allowing us to have the ball at the back but were playing a high line defensively.

“We have two very quick wingers but we never went in behind once.

“It can be a good ball but we never used it once and that’s incredible as we kept trying to feed the ball in to players who were being marked, losing the ball and allowing them to break on us.

“It was just poor decision making, but it’s pre-season and that’s what pre-season is for.

“I felt I learned a lot about the players from that game and I feel the players learned more than in the two other games.

“We could win all our pre-season games 5-1, 6-1 or 7-1, then get to the first league game and be placed under real pressure but not know how to deal with it because we haven’t had that pressure in pre-season.

“That game at Harwich was a good exercise for us in dealing with pressure and from that point of view it was probably better to have the game we did rather than winning 6-0.

“Once Harwich got their goal, you could see them believing and I thought we got frustrated.

“There were players who had bad games and then became anxious and it was a bit of a vicious circle from that point.

“Performances got worse and worse as they tried harder and harder, so you just have to philosophical about it.

“It’s pre-season and you have to put it in context.

“We’ve had four training sessions and three games together as a group so it’s not the end of the world.

“If that had been our standards for the first two pre-season games then I’d be worried to see that as the third but the first two showed what we can do.

“It’s better that it happened in pre-season than in a league game.

“We have to deal with that defeat, but sometimes you learn more about the team and players from that kind of situation.

“I learned a lot about certain players and their characteristics, which is important to know.

“There will be games where we’re under pressure and you need to know what players will stand up in those moments and whose heads are going to go down."