MALDON and Tiptree boss Wayne Brown saw his side suffer second successive away defeat and warned his players that they need to listen more carefully to instructions, writes JON LONGMAN.

Brown was disappointed with the Jammers' 3-2 derby defeat at Heybridge Swifts, who snatched the win with a stunning goal three minutes into time added on.

The manager had organised friendlies against Harlow Town and Brightlingsea Regent to get the crushing 3-0 defeat at Hashtag United out of the players’ minds but his plans went awry when Regent, cancelled the fixture at short notice.

Brown called on his alliance partnership with Colchester United to arrange a game against the U’s under-23s but it was not the ideal fix for the Jammers.

Brown said: “I said to the lads that we have to take this result on the chin, absorb the lessons learnt because there is always an opportunity to get it right.

“It’s disappointing when you lose at any level of football but it’s tough when it is a local derby that means so much to the supporters.”

Brown had tweaked the team tactics after the defeat at Hashtag and the performance at Swifts was a vast improvement on the show at the Bowers and Pitsea stadium.

Brown added: “Saturday’s game was one of those where we tried something different as we tried to get success in a different way but the lads understanding of that was a little bit naive at times

“If you were a neutral you would say that there was only one team in the ascendancy to go out and win the game in the second half.

“From our point of view that is great that we have got that in us but we don’t want to go on and lose games.

“We were knocking on the door and we had a few chances but so did Heybridge.

“It's good that we say we want to go on and win games. That is the winning mentality that we want at this football club but sometimes you must make sure that you don’t lose games.

“We have now conceded six goals in two away games and that is a problem that needs addressing but all we can do is to brush ourselves down and get going again.

“You are going to lose games so it is all about how you respond and how you react.

“If it had been a draw against Heybridge, you would say that we were unlucky not to go on and win it, but to go on and concede a late winner to them is hard to take.

‘It’s all about fine margins in football but then margins need to start going our way.

“Games are coming thick and fast with games on Saturday [Brentwood away, 3pm] and Tuesday [Barking at home, 7.45pm] so we can get it right.”