BARNSTON produced their best football of the season against Wormingford Wanderers on Saturday but still came away with a 2-1 defeat.

Boss Lee Elliston said he was “pleased” with the overall performance of his players but blamed individual errors for costing the team the game.

“We didn’t get what our play deserved but we have to be clinical in front of goal when we are in the ascendancy. On another day we would have won 4-1,” Elliston told the Broadcast.

“The individuals concerned know why we lost, you cannot account for those errors. Ninety per cent of our defeats have been for the same reason – I just want people to learn from it. It would be easier if it was always one person.

“Despite that there were a lot of positives to take out of the loss. I asked for a response and at last the lads did their job, worked hard and played as I asked.”

Elliston said consistency was the key between now and the end of the season – starting with a similar performance at Rayne this weekend – and was adamant results would come if his side cut out the errors.

Having narrowly lost the reverse fixture against Wormingford 2-1, Barnston got off to the worst possible start on Saturday when they went a goal down inside 10 minutes.

A deflected strike from 15 yards out looped into the far corner of the home side’s net after Wormingford’s striker reacted quickly to a poorly defended free-kick.

From that moment on Barnston played their best football of the season but still went into the break 1-0 down after missing some glorious opportunities to equalise.

Having started the second half where they left off it appeared only a matter of time before the leveller finally came. Elliston’s men continued to miss the chances that came their way before Craig Copas restored parity.

Good play from Joe Lewis and Elliott Ellwood found Jake Buckland, who’s movement and skill took him into the box before cutting the ball back for Copas to tuck into the bottom corner from eight yards out.

Wormingford upped their tempo but Barnston remained on top until the home side received a sucker punch on 88 minutes.

Poor decision-making led to an error in the back four inside their own half and Wanderers had no trouble capitalising, as their midfield dynamo confidently found the back of the net to earn his side a 2-1 victory.

Barnston welcome Rayne on Saturday, 3pm kick-off.