It was a difficult afternoon for the Briggers away at Retford FC, the day ended in a 3-1 away defeat. We caught up with the Briggers boss Luke Forgione after the match.

We started the game slowly and this continued throughout the first half with Retford controlling the game and to be fair in that first period we weren’t at the races.

Ross (Pritchard) made a couple of good saves that kept us in the game, and although we had a couple of good passages of play which lead to a couple of half chance opportunities we were second best. The pitch was difficult and it made it hard for us and we found it hard to adjust, but in fairness Retford deserved to be in front at half time, but the manner of the goal was disappointing.

The second half we started much better and started to gain more control, we changed our system and style of play, to be more effective and started to build more pressure and I thought we were the better team. We got back into the game with a good goal from Spenser Sheppard who I brought on at half time, and I thought he did well.

We then conceded a silly goal and we were chasing the game again. Fair play to Retford, they finished off the game with a good finish on the 3rd goal when we were pushing to try and get something.

It won’t do us any harm and will learn from it, last week I made a comment that we need to say grounded. We are a young side and it is very easy to get carried away after two wins and a good preseason. The league is very unforgiving, if you aren’t at your best your can get beat anywhere, it is that competitive and our performance wasn’t good enough in the first half. Second half we were better but we still need to improve and the players know that.

It gave some of our players an understanding of how tough Non League Football at this level can be, anyone can beat anyone, if your not at it. We look to bounce back on Tuesday at home to Harrogate Railway who have had a good start so we know it will be a tough game.

Thank you to everyone that attended and cheered the lads on, we go again on Tuesday night.