WITHAM Town manager Marc Benterman felt his team's display in their BetVictor Isthmian League division north defeat by Aveley highlighted some areas that they need to iron out.

Despite only having brought the squad together in the summer, it has been an encouraging start to the season by Witham, but Benterman feels their form has stalled a bit in recent weeks and now wants to see them get back to moving forward again.

Witham were due to have a Velocity Trophy group game against Canvey Island on Tuesday, but that has been postponed due to the Gulls having an FA Cup replay and Witham's next action will now be at Ashford United in the preliminary round of the FA Trophy on Saturday.

Having seen his team have a two-week break ahead of the 2-1 loss to Aveley, Benterman wants to see better consistency from his young players and said there would be some hard work in training this week in preparation for their trip to Kent.

He said: “We thought a 14-day break would do us the world of good (ahead of the Aveley game) but it had the opposite effect.

“We just weren’t good enough and it was the same conversations with the same people.

“I don’t think we can say how unlucky we were and talk about the missed opportunities because it’s just about putting points on the table.

“We now have to work extremely hard between this one and the trip Ashford in the Trophy on Saturday.

“But we’re a new group and there will be teething problems.

“We started the season tremendously well with four points from the first two games, then we had a superb performance at Histon and drew against Romford when we could have won, but you will get inconsistency.

“That’s the way it is with youngsters.

“Look at Aveley – there wasn’t much between the two teams but they had experience and made the right decisions at the right times.

“That was it.

“They had a striker who isn’t the tallest but got a header on goal because we didn’t mark him and then I don’t think they had a shot on target in the second half other than the second goal.

“They are very clinical these teams at this level because they pay big money.

“We just need to work on a few things as a group.

“We looked better when Marcus Bowers came on as we managed to turn the screw more but when you are playing 20 to 22-year-olds, sometimes decision-making needs to be better.

“Aveley have a team that has been together at this level for five to six years while we don’t, but that’s no excuse and we need to learn fast.

“It’s the continuity and consistency in our play that we need to find and we need to do it fast.

“There is no pressure from the club; we’ve had a good start, but we can’t keep saying that going into December and January, we must be putting points on the board.

“Eight points from eight games isn’t a bad start – apart from the Maldon game – but there are a few points that have slipped away and we could have 12 points and be in the play-off positions.

“So we have to make sure we are learning fast and get those points on the board."