Halstead Town manager Mark Benterman was quick to apologise to the Humbugs' fans after a "lack of effort, desire and work ethic" in their 2-0 defeat by Stowmarket Town.

Town came into the game at Rosemary Lane having taken five points from their previous three games and with their sights set on returning to the Thurlow Nunn League division one promotion race.

However, two goals in the second half saw the visitors take all three points and Benterman was left disappointed by the application of his players.

He said on the club's Facebook page: "Credit to Stowmarket, who showed what desire and work ethic can get you today and deserved the points.

"Again, there were changes made to our starting line up with four changes from last week's impressive performance (against Needham Market) and three of them were made in the back four.

"But regardless of the personal, what frustrated me was our lack of effort, desire and work ethic and I apologise to the fans because that's not good enough for the paying public.

"They don't deserve that and I was the first to apologise to them in the bar.

"If you're paying money to see a side at any level you want to see a team roll their sleeves up and battle and today too many went missing."