Lowestoft Town will be looking for their first win of the new year this weekend – having opened 2013 with more of a whimper than a bang.

The Trawlerboys were decidedly off colour on New Year's Day when they had to come from behind to earn a 1-1 draw against local rivals Leiston – with Jack Defty nicking the equaliser with just a minute left on the clock.

Defeat dropped Town down to fifth in the Ryman League Premier Division, with bitter rivals Bury Town jumping above them after a 3-2 win at Enfield Town.

The Blues head to Thurrock – who are second from bottom – tomorrow, with director of football Craig Fleming insisting they raise their game after Tuesday's struggles.

'What I cannot stand here and deny is the fact that we were poor – we were very poor,' said Fleming. 'That is probably as bad as we have played all season long.'

There were mitigating factors – Town are still missing a host of senior players through injury while striker Michael Frew missed the game because of suspension.

However, Fleming believes the lack of match action following the recent bad weather, which forced the postponement of Lowestoft's previous three games, finally caught up with some of his players.

'I think probably one thing I would put it down to is that we haven't played for over two weeks now,' he said. 'I think it is two and a half weeks now since we had a competitive game – and it showed.

'By my reckoning we had probably five, six, seven players who are normally seven or eight out of 10 players who were threes and fours. You can carry one or two players like that, but when you have got that many, you are going to struggle, and we did to be honest.

'I don't blame the players. It was just one of those games. We were poor – it happens once in a while.

'The thing was, instead of carrying one or two, which is entirely possible in some games, we had a lot who were completely off form. But I have to say those players have been different class for us as well.

'I genuinely think we were just very, very rusty indeed because of the postponements – we just lacked that match sharpness.'