Corinthian-Casuals are still in search for their first Bostik Premier points following a 3-1 defeat to Folkestone Invicta on Tuesday night.

An early goal for Invicta was the worst possible start for James Bracken’s side who found themselves 2-0 down within the first quarter of an hour before Hamilton Antonio reduced the arrears two minutes later.

However, pushing for an equaliser in the second half, Casuals left themselves open to a long ball attack which was expertly finished by Keiron McCann to seal the three points.

“A disastrous start for sure”, said James Bracken following the defeat. “After Saturday, where we conceded as many as we did in the first half, you want to keep them from scoring for as long as possible and make sure it doesn’t happen again.

“The first cross of the game has ended up in the back of the net. There’s no blame there from anyone. It’s an error and the lad has held his hands up straight away. That’s fair enough. I can’t ask for more.

“It’s a decent enough response though. Second goal isn’t good from our point of view and we need to be better. This is the level we have to be. We’ll have to learn quickly. If you get things wrong positionally, the ball is in the back of the net. We’re being dragged up to speed quickly here in terms of lessons learned. As long as we learn them, that’s fine.

“We pulled a goal back, had other chances and on the balance of play, we probably edged possession. We probably completed double the passes that they have. They’re a very direct side.

"They go back to front very quickly. That obviously works for them. But in terms of performance I can’t really knock them too much. Energy and quality was all there.

"We need a little more guile around the final third to carve out one or two more clear-cut openings. That’s stuff we can certainly work on. But I do feel we have the quality, energy and fitness at the moment to make ourselves competitive.

“We’ve lost two games in a row but there’s no position yet. I certainly won’t be looking at the league table right this minute, worrying about anything. We’ll only worry about correcting what we need to correct. We’ll only worry about our performance levels and our attitude. At the minute, they’re bang on.

"We’ll concentrate on the Merstham game who’ve lost two themselves. This is already quite a big game. One or both of us will bet our first points on the board, so we must ensure we turn up with a positive attitude and make sure it’s us on the day.”