JUSTIN Miller was content to tot up the positives from Purton’s performance last weekend as the Red House men bowed out of the Hellenic League Challenge Cup.

Purton were knocked out in the first round after suffering a 2-0 defeat at the hands of Premier Division Thatcham Town, who resigned from the Southern League last season.

Stuart Parker put the visitors ahead in the first period before substitute Josh Stockwell struck in the second half but Miller was pleased with his side’s display against higher-league opposition.

Marcus Hall missed the chance to strike back for Purton as he crashed a penalty against the crossbar after Richie Saunders had been brought down in the box and the Red House boss thinks that his team weren’t too far away from pulling off an upset.

“We did really well and I think we could have gotten something out of the game,” said Miller.

“We created some chances and Tom Swindall got in behind them two or three times. I know that Marcus Hall was disappointed about missing the penalty but he’s been injured and it was his first start of the season, so he shouldn’t be too hard on himself.

“I know that the league is the important thing but you do want to try and win every game. We’ve only got 28 league games so if we could go on a little cup run, that would be great.

“We’ve still got the Wilts (Senior) Cup and we go into the Supplementary Cup now, which is another opportunity.

“We’ve shipped ten goals in our last two games so it was good to see a much better performance and there were a lot of positives to take out of it – our last three games had been away too, so it was nice to be back at home.

“If we can play like that every week, we’ll do well. We’ve got Ciren (Town Development) next weekend and we’re looking forward to that one.”

Elsewhere, Fairford Town came out on the wrong end of a seven-goal thriller as they were beaten 4-3 by Thame United at Cinder Lane.

Jack Allan’s opener was cancelled out as the visitors’ Marcus Mealing scored either side of half-time before Adam Morris put Gareth Davies’ men 3-1 behind.

Tom Ballard reduced the deficit but Dan West regained Thame’s two-goal lead, with Matt Boucher’s late effort not enough to pull off a comeback.