MANAGER Mark Ashford felt it was not a bad sign that his Witham Town side came off the pitch disappointed with the point they earned against Barking.

Witham host Tilbury at the Village Glass Stadium on Saturday sat 15th in the Bostik League division north table after their 1-1 draw with Barking last weekend.

In a fairly even game, Ashford felt a draw was probably a fair result, but his team held the lead at the break thanks to Johnny Ashman's wonderful first-half goal and had chances to go further ahead before Joseph Bruce's equally impressive strike levelled things for the visitors.

Had Witham taken one of their chances to open a two-goal lead, Ashford thought the end result may have been different and he felt it was positive that his players came off the pitch frustrated with just a point.

He said: “We would have come off the pitch pleased with a point if this game had been played in October.

“Now we’re coming off disappointed that we haven’t won.

“You have no right to win anything in this league and Barking are similar to us in that they punch above their weight on limited resources but they have to be respected.

“They were in the play-offs for most of last season and have a very experienced manager, but we came off the pitch disappointed with a 1-1 draw.

“So that’s a good sign and it’s now just one defeat in ten games for us.

“You have to keep picking up points all the time.

“We’re realistic and we know we have to keep looking over our shoulder but we moved up a place and brought some teams above us a point closer towards us.

“So you can’t always see a point like this as a negative."

On Saturday, Witham will now entertain a Tilbury side who, like themselves, have had a turnaround in fortune since the two met in November and currently sit four places and four points above Town.

Ashford added: “We have to keep taking each game as it comes along and we move on to the one against Tilbury now.

“It will be a very hard game and we will have to work very hard because there’s one thing about a team under Marc (Harrison) and Liam (Wallace) - similar to the Basildon side they had - they will work their socks off.

“They have quality players with some good resources and have a front three of Mitchell Gilbey, George Sykes and Lewis Smith.

“That’s right up there with the best front three in the league in my opinion so we are going to have to be really on it.

“When we played them before, they were third from bottom and we were bottom, but both sides have moved on from there.

“We are only four points behind them and have both been up in the top four or five in the form guide in recent weeks so they are a strong side who are doing well and we’re going to have to be on our game."