WHILE his side only ended up with a defeat in their opening Pontin's League fixture, coach Joey Jones was far from despondent.

"It's not often the lads are going to come up against a side of the quality Manchester City put out tonight," he said.

"Normally, City will use this league to field 16 to 19-year-olds, they even asked me if lads of that age would cope at this level. I told them that's what we normally put out anyway!

"Tonight we had a few older players, due to lads coming back from injury, whereas this was City's first competitive game so they also fielded some senior players looking for matches.

"We certainly didn't disgrace ourselves - especially in the second half, when I thought we did well to match them.

"Having conceded two goals before half time I did fear they might run in a few more, but credit to our players for they way they responded."