Wroxham boss David Batch gave his players 'fours and fives' as he assessed the opening game of his team's Ryman League Division One North campaign.

The Yachtsmen produced what Batch believes will already go down as their worst performance of the season – but admits they could have sneaked a surprise win.

However, it's not what Batch ordered from a team he took to the Eastern Counties Premier Division title last season, two years after the club went to Wembley as FA Vase finalists.

'I would be fairly sure that would be our worst performance of the season,' he said. 'Most of our players played at four or five out of 10. We were a little bit unlucky in some respects in that we lost Andy Eastaugh early on to a nasty head injury.

'And we also equalised with about five minutes to go – and the referee has disallowed that for offside when Paul Cook was clearly onside.

'Stats wise, in terms of shots and crosses and set-plays we were all over them, but the most important stat was the two shots they had that went in. We were 2-0 down with 20 minutes to go and then all of a sudden decided we wanted to play – we equalised, scored another that got disallowed, their keeper has made two worldy saves – so strangely we could have come away from the game winning with what was an awful performance and it turned out we ended up deservedly getting nothing from the game after an awful performance.'

'It was just one of those days where we had lots of players not playing well - but I am confident that is not going to happen to often this season.'

The Yachtsmen lost Eastaugh after just 10 minutes, the midfielder taken to hospital for stitches after a clash of heads. The incident seemed to spark Potters Bar into life as they took control of the game, always seemingly able to find the spare man.

It was 35 minutes before either side created a clear-cut chance, Potters Bar midfielder Urquhart making a solo run before shooting wide of the Wroxham goal, but it was goalless at the interval.

The breakthrough came on the hour mark when the impressive Potters Bar front man James Gershfield made no mistake, converting after good work from Dan Alley.

Five minutes later, with Wroxham looking jaded in the heat, the same two linked up again as Gershfield claimed his second of the match.

Wroxham made changes and sub Matt Blake, having already seen an effort go just wide, gave Wroxham a lifeline with 10 minuets to go, slamming the ball home after some determined running. With time running out the Wroxham faithful had their hopes of a first Ryman League point dashed by referee Russ Howes when he pointed to the raised flag after had shot home.

• Potters Bar: Thompson, Pett, Munelly, Urquhart, Beekles, Witham, Gershfield, Johnson, Alley, Penney, Thompson. Subs: Paratusie, Magood, Doyle, Coles.

• Wroxham; Hilton, Self, Gordon, McNeil, Halliday, Eastaugh, White, Lemmon, Cook, Langlois, Daniels. Subs: Carus, Turner, Durrant, Blake, Gilfedder.

• Referee: R Howes. Attendance: 65.