Paul Doswell offers Hawks assessment as Joe Newton's own-goal proves decisive at St Albans

Joe Newton' s own-goal - his second in the past three matches - sent Hawks crashing to a 1-0 defeat at St Albans.

But Doswell could not have been happier with his side's start to the game - the only downside was their failure to find the net.

Overall, the Hawks boss felt it was a good performance from his men, although they came away pointless.

And Doswell feels his side will play worse in the National League South this season and come away victorious in matches.

The Hawks boss said: ‘We were very good first half, very good. You’ve got to score when you’re dominant and we were dominant and had five really good chances.

‘To be fair, one of them was brilliant from Billy Clifford, he hit the crossbar having beaten three players.

‘We dominated the first 40 minutes, I don’t think Ross Worner touched the ball, but then a cross - it was so similar to the own-goal from Joe in the FA Cup the previous week - it was a poor own-goal.

‘When you’re 1-0 up, they sat in, they wasted time and did what they needed to do, they hit us on the break when they could.

‘It was one of those days. I can’t criticise the effort, most of the performance was very, very good. It’s football, sometimes you walk away disappointed.’

Midfielder Billy Clifford crashed a strike from distance against the crossbar as Hawks had the upper hand in the early exchanges.

Disaster struck just before the break, with Newton diverting a cross into his own net on 44 minutes.

Hawks could have snatched a point late on but Scott Rendell could not find the target with his free header from a corner.

For Newton, it was the second time in three games he's put through his own net after conceding an own-goal in the 5-3 FA Cup win over Beaconsfield the week previous.

This one proved far more costly, yet Doswell was impressed with the former Coventry man's performance after putting through his own net.

Doswell said: ‘I think one of the things I was proud of Joe Newton about, he scores literally on the stroke of half time, but I said it would show the measure of him (second half performance).

‘I’ve got to say, second half, he was excellent. I think he’d say himself, he’d find it hard to explain both own-goals.

‘He’s young and his recovery from it - it showed, for me, he’s got some mental toughness about him.

‘Realistically, he wasn’t suppose to start this many games with Michael Green signing but I think he’s impressed everybody, he trains well, he’s only 19 and he’s going to be a real good player.

‘But, as much as last weekend didn’t matter - we were 5-1 up when he did it (scored an own-goal) - this week it was 0-0 in a relatively important league game.’