The result may not have been the one that Halstead Town were after but Mark Benterman felt there were plenty of positives to come out of their 1-0 defeat by Saffron Walden Town in the Thurlow Nunn League Cup.

The Humbugs had to battle with only ten men for more than a third of the first round tie after picking up an injury having used all their substitutes, but Benterman was impressed by his players’ application.

And he now wants them to carry that forward into their return to Thurlow Nunn League division one action when they host March Town United at Rosemary Lane tomorrow.

“It was a tremendous game to be honest,” said the Humbugs boss.

“For the first 20 minutes they really showed their premier division quality, but we changed things around for the rest of the game and I felt we could have got something out of it.

“Their goal had a look of offside about it, but we grew into the game with five reserve-team players in our line-up.

“Players like Harry Stoneman and Mark Dallinger came in and looked really strong, which was good to see.

“We even played the last 35 minutes a man down as we’d already used our subs and Jordan Hutchings went off with an ankle knock, but I felt we looked really strong even with a man down.

“We had changed it at half-time with two substitutions to try to get us into the game and a third came soon after the restart so we didn’t have anyone else to bring on when Hutch had to come off.

“However, I thought we looked really good with ten men and we had opportunities to score.

“I was really pleased with the work ethic and we felt comfortable enough to go two up top even with a man down because we looked fitter and stronger than they did.

“So there are a lot of positives we can take.

“We were disappointed with the result, but very pleased with the performance and we now have to take that into what is a bigger game back in the league on Saturday.”