Horncastle Town ‘deserved at least a point’ in local derby

​The 3-2 loss came thanks to a late penalty for the visitors in front of a good crowd at The Wong, after Horncastle had initially come back from 2-0 down to draw level.

And Rawdon was keen to take the positives despite the result.

He said: “Both teams had come off the back of comfortable County Cup victories so it was all to play for in what is now a local derby for us.

"It was a typical derby, full of blood and thunder. Louth were very direct and like to play back to front quite quickly, into their one man up top, but that’s something we dealt with relatively well.

"But we gifted them two goals in the first-half through two individual mistakes from our goalkeeper to go 2-0 down, but even then we were probably about right in terms of how we were playing.

"We were in full control and got it back to 2-1 and then 2-2 soon afterwards, and it looked like there would only be one team go on to win it.

"But with ten minutes to go, the ball went over our back line, we’ve not cleared it properly and their striker was brought down in the box, although it was harsh, and they scored the winner.

"We kept pushing and had four or five chances but couldn’t get the equaliser, but it was a great performance from us full of work rate and desire and we had lots of possession and should have got at least a point.

"We’d like to thank everyone who turned out to watch as 174 were in attendance and it was a game they’d have all enjoyed.”

"Since the start of the season it’s been all about performances and what we can get out of each player, asking questions of them individually and as a group to see where we can take the club forward on and off the pitch.

"It’s a results business and whilst we’re judged on that, when we took over the job it was about looking at where the club is and putting something together to move forward."

Horncastle now go to Grimsby Borough on Saturday before welcoming Lincoln United Development next Wednesday night.