NEW College Academy director Ian Howell says that there always positives for the side to take from a match.

The student side fell to a 4-0 defeat to Hellenic League Division One West newcomers and leaders Longlevens on Saturday.

And while New College have only won once this term, Howell feels that the youngsters showed signs of improvements from last weekend’s 4-1 defeat at Cirencester town development.

“The performance was much better, it was more down to individual errors rather than a bad display,” Howell said.

“We as a management and coaching staff are always upbeat and we always look to find the positives for the boys.

“We will be back in training on Monday and it is the positives that we have picked out that we want them to work on.”

Howell says that some of the players in the New College set-up are beginning to taste what defeat is like for the first team.

“Some of the boys come to us from the North Wilts league where they are used to winning everything and now knowing what it is like to lose a match,” he said.

“This is all part of their learning curve and development.”

With the college set-up also featuring a team in the Youth Alliance league on the Saturday morning, Howell says that the squad was stretched pretty thin at the weekend.

“We had a number of injuries that meant that we had to be careful with who played in what match,” Howell.

“We have got our first-ever FA Youth Cup on Wednesday night against Gloucester City so we had to think about that match as well.

“But overall against Longlevens, the performance was much better and there is a lot of positives that we can take into training this week.”