"They were far too good for us!" Jamie Shaw says best team won following Sleaford Town's 8-0 defeat at Shepshed Dynamo... but manager still saw positives in the performance

Jamie Shaw conceded the best team won as Sleaford Town kicked off their UCL Premier campaign with a heavy 8-0 defeat at Shepshed Dynamo.

Matthew Melbourne and Karabo Motshweni both bagged braces for the hosts at the Dovecote Stadium, while John King, Reece Morris, Joshua Mundell and Sean Doy added to the scoreline.

"Honest truth, they were far, far too good for us," Shaw said.

"We went to try to restrict, contain. They took a little while to get into their stride, first 10-15 minutes, but once they started creating chances they looked like they could do so at will.

"They've got a very good squad, top class centre forwards, and we struggled as the score shows."

"From my knowledge of a few of the local teams at step four I'm confident they would be at least mid-table in a step four league.

"We're a new side and coming together. Had we played therm in six to eight weeks' time when we have a bit more experience of the level, would we have won? No. Would we have been able to be more solid? I'd like to think so.

"But they are far better than we are able to be at the moment with the resources we have."

Shaw was, however, able to take positives from the performance as the Greens host Pinchbeck United tomorrow night (KO 7.45pm) and travel to Peterborough Northern Star on Saturday (KO 3pm), both of whom were beaten 6-0 at the weekend.

"Our goalkeeper Garry Doran made a number of good saves but the character showed," Shaw added.

"We're starting to build a good squad of characters, whereas this time last season we maybe had more talented players, but we didn't necessarily have the strength of character and squad unity we've got now.

"They didn't give in. They didn't lie down and die. That's positive and will stand us in good stead against teams in and around more where we expect to be."

Pinchbeck were beaten by Rugby Town and PNS lost to Loughborough University.