Brentwood Town manager Steve Witherspoon is asking Blues’ fans to be patient with his team “because it’s still work in progress” after their stuttering start to their new Ryman League Division One North campaign.

Town scrambled a 1-1 home draw against Tilbury thanks to a 93rd injury time minute equaliser from substitute Steve Butterworth but Witherspoon is still confident his side will improve as the season gets underway.

“Everyone needs to patient because I still regard it as work in progress at present having reshaped the side during the summer,” he explained. “I’m confident it will all come together and the players we have I know will work hard right to the final whistle as they did on Saturday, which was not always the case last season.”

He went on: “We did create goal scoring chances but didn’t take them although on the day I felt we could have won the game.

“What was disappointing early on was that after playing so well against higher opposition during pre-season friendlies when it came to the real thing on Saturday most of the players looked nervous,” Witherspoon continued. “And surprisingly it was the more senior players that looked uncertain as early on passes went astray and we lacked cohesion.”

Witherspoon, who’s side faced another difficult game last night when they were due to go to pre-season promotion favourites Grays Athletic, remain confident that his side will come good and put in better displays he knows they are capable of showing.

“We knew that Tilbury would be a hard side to beat – they made the play-offs last season – so even when they scored in the 74th minute to take the lead I was still confident we could get something out of the game,” he added.

Witherspoon was further boosted with the news that influential midfielder Danny Dafter had recovered from a knee injury to make the starting line up at for the Grays match.

“He’s a big player for us and was missed on Saturday and so against a quality side like Grays we need him to be in there taking charge of midfield where we play five across the park,” added Witherspoon.

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