DOBWALLS boss Kev McCann is still ‘very confident we’ll start climbing the table’ following a 3-1 defeat to leaders Elburton Villa at Lantoom Park on Tuesday night.

The contest – which was the South West Peninsula League Premier West equivalent of David versus Goliath – with the hosts having secured just one win all season and in a rebuild phase, against a Villa side looking set to battle it out with Liskeard Athletic for the title and that have a team full of established players at Step Six and higher.

That gulf in class showed from the get-go as the Plymouth outfit raced into a 3-0 lead inside 18 minutes.

The first arrived on four minutes, via a penalty from Adam MacPherson, who later added a second as skipper Jordan Rundle also found the net.

To Dobwalls’ credit they then battened down the hatches, getting through to half-time unscathed before doing likewise after the restart.

The Dingos did pull one back through Kieran Owen, but Villa got through the rest of the contest without too much hassle.

Reflecting on the game, McCann said: “Once again, through starting so poorly, we effectively lost the game before half-time by giving ourselves far too much to do against a very good side and title favourites.

“However, after their good start, we showed that if we had kept things tighter we were more than a match for them after the break, but we've got to start showing that from the first whistle.”

Of Dobwalls’ side, the majority were playing in the St Piran League last term, many under McCann at Saltash Borough, and he knows everybody needs to improve.

He said: “All our players have come up from lower level football and need to learn to adapt to this level – to follow gameplans, instructions and be far better in possession from the first minute –because we've proved we can compete with any team when we do.

“We've had a very tough start playing all of the teams in the top six in our first nine league games - inexplicably having to play Elburton twice already, so we're not panicking at all and I'm still very confident we'll start to climb the table.”

Dobwalls take a break from league action on Saturday when they make the lengthy journey to the top of North Devon.

McCann concluded: “We've got a League Cup game at Illfracombe, which I'm going to use to learn more about my players that will help us get better for our league campaign.”

DOBWALLS v Elburton Villa: Liam Bray; Oscar Quintrell, Ryan Winfield, Dan Frazer, Cam Copp, Levi Cable, Cam Dymond (capt), Fin Neville, Scott Kemp, Francis Pengelly, Dan Alford. Subs: Mike Hambly, Kieran Owen, Theo Robinson, Jordan Bunworth, Jack Ssengendo.-