(The game) was kind of what we expected in terms of what they came with, the game plan, style of play. I set the lads up to counteract what they do. They set the ball, they turn it, and they are organised.

They play on the bits in your half of the pitch, and we didn’t get going, we didn’t start. We said the right things in the dressing room about how we go about it, but we didn’t start the game well enough, and we paid the price for a really poor first twenty minutes.

I said on Saturday that if anyone finishes above them then they win the league, and I don’t think that’s changed after tonight. I think it’s pretty clear that there’s a gulf between the teams in that first half an hour.

They were sharper than us and better all over the pitch. They met things on the full, they were solid, they weren’t shanking or hooking clearances like we were. They put the ball in good areas and keep it in play and they run hard all over the pitch.

We didn’t do that in the first half and we’re really disappointed, but having said that, we come in (at half time) two, nil down and we’ve probably had three or four chances from set pieces with the ball bouncing around the boxes and we’ve not been able to slam it in.

So as poor as we were first half, we could have easily nicked a goal, and then it all changed in the second half and it was a more even game in terms of open play, but I thought we dominated the chances.

You just can’t miss the chances that we missed. Draper’s missed one on his left foot that fell to him five or six yards out. Nat’s missed an open net, and you’ve got to take those chances in these games, and we didn’t take them. Then in the last ten minutes it petered out and they managed it well.

I just said to the lads that it isn’t that bad. We’ve got fifteen points from seven games, but the disappointing thing is that we’ve lost to the two teams who could be up and around it in Emley and Cleethorpes.

We’ve obviously got to be better against the better sides it’s as simple as that although that’s easier said than done. We would have taken fifteen points from our first seven games.

We’ve progressed a round in the F A Cup and Trophy, so we’ve won plenty of games, but we’ve got to bridge that gap between beating the middle and bottom half sides in the table and the top end sides.

Again, we fell a bit short tonight, and I do feel we missed Nathan Whitehead’s experience in there and our decision making in midfield was poor again. Again, when to turn the ball, and I said to the players you can’t always play football in this league.

Everyone wants to play in a team that bops it and moves it with ten passes, and you can’t always do it. Today we needed someone in there who is going to put it in good areas, make good choices and we didn’t, and we got punished for it.

We lost most second balls again, and they are good on second balls, and you have to credit the opposition sometimes. Over the ninety minutes they were the better team there’s no arguments on that, but I think over the course of ninety minutes we arguably had more of the better chances.

Lee Attenborough was talking to Tom Whewell