Away to Brackley

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Before the game, I would have more than taken a draw against a side who are tipped to be one of the promotion favourites come the end of the season.

However, I felt our performance overall deserved a victory. We had the better chances, together with a disallowed offside goal, and defended strong against an excellent Brackley forward line. At times, the match was tight and in that context, it was a typical sort of opening day fixture with not much being given away, but as I say, looking back on the performance as a whole, I felt we shaded it.

I was pleased with the forward line of Hammond and Kolodynski. Obviously, they both had chances to score, and once those chances start to get converted we will hopefully see more of a cutting edge to our performances that was missing at times last season.

John Sands was missing from the game due to suspension and Declan Rogers was unavailable, so we had to work with a couple of players down, and I think everyone acquitted themselves well.

Liam Nicell did well for us at right-back. He was up against a very formidable player in the shape of Tom Winters, but he contained him well and did all that was asked of him.

James Krause unfortunately had to be withdrawn as he has a twisted ankle and is doubtful for the match with Leamington on Tuesday night. This causes a slight selection dilemma, because if he doesn�t make it, I will be forced to change the back four. The options will be playing Lee Chaffey at left back with Milton Elenge partnering Dave Theobald, or alternatively putting Joey Abbs at left-back and playing him there for the duration of the match. Clearly, it depends on how Krause is on Tuesday before I make that decision.

Make no mistake about it; I think Brackley will almost certainly be in the mix come the end of the season. Their side is packed with experience and are among a group of teams who have a high playing budget so the expectation is higher for them to perform. So taking all that into account, I have to be pleased with the return from our opening game.

Leamington, our opponents on Tuesday will be a different test to what we experienced on Saturday. They are physically strong and are more direct than Brackley. They have lost a few and gained a few in pre-season, and had a decent result at home to Bashley on Saturday. From our perspective, we had an excellent home record last year, so we will be looking to get off to a good start in that respect on Tuesday, but we know the task will be tough.

I haven�t set a target for the first four games as it is far too early in the season for that. We know that we have a tough start, so we are not looking to set our stall out early. What we do know is that on our day we are a match for anyone in this league, so if we put in the expected level of performance we have every chance of competing against the elite.

As for the rest of the the weekend�s results, well the victory that new boys Chesham got against Truro was perhaps the stand out one, but Salisbury, our opponents on Saturday, got a great start with a resounding victory against Stourbridge, and unlike last year, there is no team out there that immediately gives you the impression they are going to run away with the league, so it will be interesting to see how things pan out during the season.