SWINDON Supermarine manager Dave Webb believes that his players can boast pride in defeat after the way that they stood up to the might of Hereford on Saturday.

Marine were beaten 2-0 at the Southern League Division One South and West’s runaway leaders, prolific striker John Mills – the division’s top-scorer – converting from the penalty spot after Jack Alexander felled Mike Symons in the first half before angling home a header from a Pablo Haysham cross in the second period.

However, Webb thought his troops improved immeasurably on the display they produced when losing 6-1 at home to Salisbury seven days previous, and hopes that Marine will be able to reproduce the character they showed at Edgar Street in the coming weeks.

“We had to move on from last Saturday and we did that – I was pleased with the performance,” said the Webbswood Stadium chief, who deployed Ryan Wood and Joe Shepherd in central defence in the absence of first-choice pairing Zak Westlake and Ash Taylor.

“They’re an excellent side and we had a game plan that we executed well but unfortunately gave a penalty away in the first half.

“We continued what we were doing and made a couple of changes on the hour to try and take the game to them.

“We lost the game 2-0 but anybody that’s watched the game will say that the boys have put in a good shift, and we just came up against a very good Hereford side.

“They’re top of the league on merit and credit to them because they’re a very good team. They’ll go on and win the league comfortably.

“It’s no disgrace for us. I’m pleased with the performance and the way the players went about what we asked them to do.

“The players have done the club proud and they’ve put in a good shift, and even though we’ve lost, I always think there’s a way to lose.

“If we were going to lose, we went down fighting. That was important to me as a manager and they’ve done that.

“There’s a lot of positives to take and it’s just about how we take that forward and how we build on this result.”

Webb also handed a debut at right-back to new signing Jon Else, who joined Marine on Friday from North Leigh.

The 27-year-old did sign for the club back in 2007 after leaving New College Academy but never played a game in his first spell.

“He’s still a young player but he’s got a lot of Southern League experience and he’s played at a good level, and I just think it gives us that bit more experience, that maybe we’ve lacked,” said Webb.

“We’ve got a young team here but he’s got some good games under his belt at this level and above, so I’m sure that he’ll improve the group that we’ve put together.”