AFTER a 7-0 midweek defeat a trip to undefeated Dereham Town this afternoon is not what Wivenhoe Town would have wanted.

A promising start to the season saw Wivenhoe record two wins and a draw in their opening three Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division fixtures, and the prospect of better times ahead, after three seasons of struggle.

Since then the Dragons have won just one and lost seven of their last eight league games, and were on the receiving end of a seven-goal hiding at Brantham Athletic in the Red Insure Cup on Tuesday night.

Manager Mo Osman said before the start of the season that he had assembled his strongest squad sine he took over at Broad Lane. So what’s gone wrong?

Osman said: “We have lost a few players since the start of the season – Richie Robins and Marley Spindler have both gone to university, which they had not planned to do – while Bryan Turner and Markel Greenidge have not been unavailable.

“Bryan and Markel are both older players, after them the next oldest is Ray Catchpole at 24 and after him they are all 21 and below – and our lack of experience is showing.”

Osman, who was disappointed by Wivenhoe’s 1-0 loss at home to newly-promoted Thetford Town last Saturday, said his target for this season still remained the same.

“Always get to 40 points first as quickly as possible and then go on from there,” he said.

“Against the top teams it will always be hard. It was disappointing on Saturday because you have to beat the teams in and around you.

“We should not have lost, but we can’t really complain. Neither side did enough to win the game, but they had a bit of luck as we scored an own goal.”

As for Tuesday’s heavy defeat the ever-honest Osman summed up: “At nil-nil we looked in it, but once they scored there was only going to be one winner.

“We could have shut up shop at half time at 3-0 down, but you still have half-a-chance.

“However, once they made it 4-0 it was game over. They are a good side and we can’t complain about the result.”

Dereham have dropped to fourth due to their cup exploits this season, but would go top again if they were to win all of their three games in hand.

Osman admitted: “It doesn’t get any harder than that, but we will go there with belief that we can get a result.”