Witham Town manager Mark Ashford says his team need to stop giving their Bostik League division north opponents a head start to make sure they can get themselves clear of the relegation scrap at the foot of the table.

Ashford felt his players paid the price for an under par first half in their 2-1 defeat by Bury Town on Tuesday as the Suffolk side were handed a two-goal half-time lead.

Witham improved after the break and Sam Ashford's penalty halved the deficit, but the damage had been done already and Town were unable to find the equaliser that boss Ashford felt they deserved.

The Witham manager said: "The players were fine for the first 15 minutes until the first Bury goal went in.

"It was pretty even early on but as soon as the first goal was scored, we seemed to lose confidence with people looking around for someone else to step forward and that was disappointing for me.

"There had been a lot of things said before the game about carrying on the good work from the performance on Saturday, but the first goal was a poor one to concede and we fell apart a bit after that.

"Bury played very well but we allowed them to play well, so we switched things around at half-time and the players took confidence from that.

"We created about ten chances in the second half and I felt we should have got a point from the game.

"But it's becoming a bit of a cycle where we are giving ourselves mountains to climb each game.

"We almost climb them by having a really good go but we can't keep giving teams starts because this is a tough league."

With Soham Town Rangers winning at Felixstowe and Walton United, the defeat by Bury meant Witham slipped to the foot of the table, but with only seven games of the season gone and his squad still developing quickly, Ashford isn't losing too much sleep over his team's current predicament.

"We are bottom now, but it's still early in the season and that's significant," he added.

"So I'm not concerned about our position because I am optimistic about what we are doing and where we are going.

"We are competing with teams with much bigger resources than us and it's just small parts of games that are costing us.

"I know when we get it right then we will start turning the defeats into wins.

"We're also suffering with injuries in some certain positions and that doesn't help with a young and inexperienced squad.

"I'm excited as I know there is a big upsurge to come, but we have to get there sooner rather than later."