AFC Sudbury manager, Mark Morsley, was delighted with some of his young side’s football, especially during the first period, despite last night’s heavy 5-1 home defeat at the hands of promotion-chasing Maldon & Tiptree.

The Suffolk side had powered to a 4-0 win at out-of-sorts Basildon United on Saturday, but the visit of the Jammers was always going to be a much sterner test, and so it proved.

In fact, Morsley rates the current Jammers squad as the best in the Bostik North, better even than league leaders Bowers & Pitsea.

“We had a young team out there, and it was a conscious decision to do that,” explained Morsley.

“And I enjoyed large parts of the game.

“We live in the real world and we are playing against a side who, if they had had this squad at the start of the season, then they would be winning the league.

“I think they are the best side in the league by far. They were impressive.

“Bowers & Pitsea have got some knowledgeable non-league players, but these boys (Maldon & Tiptree) are technically very, very good.

“I said to the lads before the game that they are the one side who might be as good if not better than you are on this (3G) surface. And I think they proved it tonight.

“But for the first 22 minutes we were excellent. We are disappointed with the first three goals we conceded – we felt they could have been dealt with.

“But the benefit of this game, you cannot underestimate. We had a lot of under-18 players in there, which is what we want to do.

“We have under-18s who are used to winning games, but this is a different challenge to lose a game. I was proud of the way we played at times.

“These two football clubs are in different places, let’s be honest.

“Maldon & Tiptree are under pressure to get up the leagues, with their Colchester United connection.

“They want to get up into Step Two, and you can see the rationale behind that.

“But our aims are different, and our situation is different, and I enjoyed watching them play tonight.

“We had several chances, especially early on,” added Morsley.