Paul Cox calls on Boston United's players to learn from opening day drubbing by Southport

The below-par Pilgrims were drubbed 5-3 by Southport after falling 5-0 behind inside the opening hour.

Jordan Crawford scored twice in the 71st and 90th minutes, with Lebrun Mbeka adding a third consolation goal in stoppage time.

But it was too little too late with Cox knowing his side must now re-find their usual defensive solidity.

“I thought we had a half decent pre-season and looked solid and hard to score against,” he said.

“You come in at half-time after a disastrous 20 minutes and wonder how that has happened.

“It was schoolboy defending. We were too easy to play against and too open.

“Southport didn't really have to work for any of their goals. The goals that we conceded, and the basic phases of play against us, were just too easy.

“The first goal shocked us, you want to see people get on the ball again but we seemed to panic in possession and started to chase the game.

“Then two quick goals and you have a mountain to climb.

“It's not nice to concede that amount of goals at home, but I’d rather it happened now than in two months' time.

“We have to lick the wounds and come back a little bit stronger. We know what we need to do.”

And Cox says there is no need to panic after just one bad day at the office.

“There's one or two things we need to put right and improve on, but there's no panic stations,” he said.

“We can't change the game, what we can do is learn from it and move forward.

“I never get worried. I’ve never got off to a good start as a manager, but we have usually always achieve at the end of the season.

“The positives of pre-season came undone in 20-25 minutes today.

“We were on top for the first 10-15 minutes and in control of the ball but goals change the course of goals and bad defending cost us. These things happen at points in the season I'm glad it happened today rather than later to give us a wake-up call as to where we need to improve.”