Badshot Lea first-team coach Gary Pierce praised his side’s second-half performance after they won 5-3 against Eversley & California in the Combined Counties Premier Division South.

The Baggies trailed 3-2 at half-time but scored three unanswered goals in the second half to claim the three points.

“It's been difficult over the past couple of weeks,” said Pierce.

“We found ourselves in a very similar position, but our ability on the ball saw us through in the end.

“There's been other weeks where we keep on throwing away leads, which keeps on giving us an uphill battle.

“It was the right result, but we put ourselves in a position where we had to dig deep and pull ourselves out of it.

“In the first 15 minutes we played to the game plan.

“We spoke to the boys about how Eversley would play, which was going to be physical and very direct.

“They played exactly how we expected them to play, and in the first ten minutes we got the ball down and played between the lines.

“We then played into their hands and they started to pick up second balls and shove it straight down our throats, which put pressure on us.

“We were making poor decisions and weren't moving the ball quickly enough.

“We spoke about it at half-time and told the boys we needed to put our foot on the ball, move it through the centre of the park and switch the play.

“As soon as we started switching the play our wingers on both sides had the better of their full-backs.

“Then it was just about us being clinical, and we were.

“As soon as we got the third I was 100 per cent certain we were going to get the fourth and the fifth.

“We can't afford to do that every week – we shouldn't need to score five goals to win a game.

“There's no question about the ability of the guys – they're young lads who can play really good football.

“They move the ball quickly, our rotation and the way we are able to transfer the ball from one side of the pitch to the other is extremely good and teams we're playing against are struggling to deal with that.

“The problem is we need to be stronger off the ball and be quicker to get into shape off the ball.”

Pierce was especially happy to get all three points.

“It was important to turn goals into points,” said Pierce.

“When you look at the games we've drawn it's disappointing that we're not on more points but it’s a new management team and pretty much a new squad playing in a league the club haven't played in for a couple of seasons.

“We're going in the right direction – there's no doubt this team is only going to get better.

“As they cut out the mistakes, continue to learn the game and make the right decisions at the right time you'll see a step up to the next level.

“For a lot of the boys it’s their first season playing men's football.

“They've transitioned in from under-18s or under-23s and there's a big difference in the physicality and the speed of the game.

“Most of them are dealing with it pretty well and they're only going to get better.”