Wealdstone manager Dean Brennan was pleased to see the character shown by his squad to keep fighting until the death as they suffered a narrow 1-0 loss to title hopefuls Dagenham & Redbridge.
A 65th minute strike from Angelo Balanta sealed the three points for the Daggers against the Stones in a cagey affair at the Chigwell Construction Stadium.
But the boss felt his side didn’t do too much wrong but knows they need to adapt to the level and take their chances when they come.
“Not a lot went wrong, it’s just the level, you’re coming up against full-time clubs and they changed their formation totally to what they’ve played in the previous two games,” Brennan said.
“They played 3-5-2 and 4-3-3, then today (Saturday) they played four up front with a high press and the pitch is tight here - a lot of things that played into their advantage.
“Our team did show character, we had two glorious chances at the end, and on chances it was a very tight game and we probably had more possession but with no real killer punch.
“Although when chances come along you have to take them at this level and we go away with no points for that reason.”
The former Hemel Hempstead manager is keen for his men to create more chances as they did have a lot of possession but at the same time didn’t threaten too often.
“I’d like us to create more chances, our build-up play is good, we get into good areas but we’ve got to penetrate more and when we’re on top we’ve got to score goals.
“We haven’t really done enough today, but we didn’t deserve to lose, especially with the two chances at the end as we’ve missed two great chances.
“Their lad (Angelo) Balanta, he’s a fantastic player for this level, and he curled it into the corner when they had their opportunity.”
The late chances fell to substitutes Ross Lafayette and Jerome Slew who the boss felt made a good impact after coming off the bench.
“They were time wasting, I was surprised that only four minutes were put on the board, there was six substitutes and loads of injuries.
“I quite like Elliott (Swallow) he’s a solid referee, but there we go. The impact the three substitutes made were good. Rosco gave us something to play off as he is a target man, Slewy has got pace, and they both had glorious chances.
“We’ve got a good group of lads, we showed character by trying to get something out of the game, but we’ve came away to a tough place against a team who are one of the favourites for the division but we have to learn very quick and we’ve got to take points on the road.”
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