WITHAM TOWN manager Mark Benterman felt Lady Luck eluded his team on a night when he felt they were worth more than the draw they got against Bury Town.

A 1-1 draw against a Bury side who he expects to be challenging in the BetVictor Isthmian League division north play-offs this year was a result that the Witham boss admitted he would have been pleased with before kick-off in his first game in charge at the Simarco Stadium.

However, in the game's aftermath and with how he had seen his players perform, Benterman said it felt that two points had slipped away.

He said: “Had someone said to me before the game that we’d take a point off a Bury side who are expected to be in and around the play-offs then I’d have taken that all day long.

“But on reflection, I thought our performance was better than the result.

“I think we were unfortunate to not come away with three points and I see it as two points dropped.

“We were absolutely outstanding to a man but that little bit of luck you need wasn’t with us.

“We hit the bar, (Marcus) Bowers hit a shot that hot someone in the chest, Scott Kemp tried to stretch to get to one that had he not cut his toenails the night before then I think he would have scored – it’s just that little bit of luck you need.

“We have a fantastic squad and people are not going to come to our place and take us lightly, but we are disappointed we haven’t taken the three points.

“But if someone had said to me that from our first two games, against Hullbridge who had won their league at the level below last year and Bury who were sixth last year in this league, we’d get four points from six, then you’d take that.

“We’re going to enjoy the ride and enjoying the ride has got us four points so far.

“It took the club 14 games to get six points last year and we’ve had two games, got four and kept one clean sheet.

“We’ll enjoy the moment, but we are very grounded and we have to stay focused now.

“We are under no illusion that it will be a tough season and we just have to work on the things that will take us to the next level."

Witham opened the scoring with a Marcus Bowers goal on 29 minutes, but they were pegged back almost immediately as Bury levelled from the restart and although Witham had the lion's share of chances over the next hour of play, that was how it remained.

Benterman was frustrated that his team were unable to consolidate their lead, but he was pleased with another performance that kept them unbeaten in his first two games in charge.

He added: “The only thing that disappointed me was that we conceded within 40 seconds of going ahead.

“That did hurt because from the age of five upwards, you do not do that.

“You keep calm, but we were waiting for someone to make a tackle rather than anyone taking charge themselves and the ball ended up in the back of the net.

“However, we didn’t falter at all after that; we regrouped and went at them again.

“What you are seeing is that we are going at teams.

“We aren’t sitting back and you can see what we have up front, we are going to cause teams problems whoever we play out of our four strikers."