BROCKENHURST boss Pat McManus took more positives than negatives out of Saturday’s 3-0 defeat at newly-crowned Sydenhams Premier champions Salisbury.

While he admitted that the nature of the goals was disappointing, he felt the Badgers competed well given the “skeleton” nature of their squad.

“I don’t feel that upset to be honest,” he said. “Conceding an own goal at the end was disappointing, but Salisbury’s first goal emanated from our mistake, we had the ball and should have cleared, and their second was a mis-hit shot that fell kindly to their striker.

“Other than that, our goalkeeper Callum Maher didn’t really have a lot to do. So, in the bigger scheme of things, Salisbury didn’t score a good goal.

“They had 80 per cent of possession, but we’d decided to surrender the majority of possession to them in any case and try and hit them on the break.

“We breached their defence on the counter-attack a few times and, with more composure, we could have affected the game a bit more.

“Their keeper pulled off a great save from Mark Barker and we had a couple of penalty appeals turned down – one for a blatant handball.

“I felt 3-0 was a bit harsh really.

“I’m pleased with the way the lads applied themselves based on the personnel we had available.

"We only had 13 players, including my assistant manager Richard Morse.

"Ideally I’d like to have made some changes when it was still 1-0 but, with Scott Joyce, Jack Burrows and Matt Vokes all missing, I didn’t have the strength in depth to accommodate that.

“To go away and get a result in this league with the injuries we’ve got is a big ask - let alone to the league champions and the resources Salisbury have!”

Brock, 17th, host Bemerton Heath Harlequins on Wednesday (7.45pm).