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Chris Woollcott felt there were plenty of encouraging signs from Canterbury City’s 3-0 loss to Deal Town.
Recently-appointed joint-manager Woollcott was forced to put together a completely new first-team squad alongside Josh Hall last week, ahead of Saturday’s game, following the departures of former manager Clive Cook, his staff and the entire playing squad.
Goals from Billy Munday, Connor Coyne and substitute Harry Alexander earned Deal the points from the Southern Counties East League Premier Division encounter.
But with some of City’s players having only met for the first time on the day of the match, Woollcott was pleased with his team’s performance in unique circumstances.
“We were not bad, to be fair,” admitted Woollcott.
“I have never lost a game and been satisfied but that’s as close as I’ve got.
“I thought we did well against a good side at this standard.
“A couple of the goals we conceded were quite sloppy but we could not have asked for more from the players.
"It’s something to build on.”
There was an average age of under 21 to Canterbury’s starting line-up for their game against Derek Hares’ men.
Woollcott said: “There were some pleasantly surprising performances.
“A lot of the lads had never played together and a couple were only meeting in the changing rooms before the game for the first time.
“We had a really good chance at the start of the second half that we missed, then Deal went and scored (to make it 3-0).
“My thought then was ‘are we going to crumble’? But the boys stood up to the challenge really well.”
Woollcott admits he and Hall are comfortable giving young players opportunities at City.
He said: “Mistakes will be made but we have some experienced players coming in this week.
"It will be a young squad overall but we are comfortable with that.”
Canterbury, 10th in the league, visit seventh-placed Glebe on Saturday.
Woollcott said: “Especially at this time of year, every game is a tough game.
“The pitches are not ideal and it becomes a bit of a battle.
"We expect tough games every week.
“I think the players, particularly the young ones, will learn a lot over the next few weeks.”
