Halstead Town manager Mark Benterman was delighted to see his team bounce back from their FA Cup exit with a performance full of character.

Having lost 6-2 at St Margaretsbury in midweek, the Humbugs beat King’s Lynn Town Reserves 2-1 at Rosemary Lane in Thurlow Nunn League division one.

It was Halstead’s fourth straight league win of the season, but they had to overcome some obstacles on the way.

Nelson Moreira gave the Linnets the lead in the third minute, before a tremendous strike by Dave Morgan arrowed into the visitors’ goal from the edge of the box in the 34th minute.

It was a deserved equaliser, but no sooner had it gone in than Halstead were reduced to ten men.

Skipper Lewis Cunliffe received his first-ever red card for an off-the-ball incident meaning they would have a numerical disadvantage for the entire second half.

However, the Town players rose to the challenge and sterling performances at both ends of the pitch saw them to victory.

New signing, Jonah Gosling, who had joined on loan on Friday from Brightlingsea Regent, got the winner as he was fouled in the box and picked himself up to slot home from the penalty spot.

And the way his players responded left manager Mark Benterman feeling very happy.

He said: “When you face a side like King’s Lynn who are new to the league, you don’t know what they will bring.

“They may have had a few first-teamers because we’d won three out of three, and I think they’ll cause a few upsets this year.

“We had to change our system a couple of times to cope with them and going down to ten men didn’t help.

“But there was great character from the boys to come back after going behind.

“I was over the moon with the performance.

“We wanted to show a bit of that in the second half on Tuesday.

“A bit of steel, determination, rolling up of the sleeves and putting your bodies on the line and that’s what we did in the second half against King’s Lynn.”