‘We took a bruise tonight, but we’ll come back stronger from this’ – that was the thoughts of Taunton Town manager Richard Luffman after their 5-1 defeat at AFC Totton on Tuesday night.

The Peacocks shipped five goals in their latest Southern League Premier South match and the manager said it was ‘thoroughly deserved’ for Totton.

Speaking to the club’s media, he said: “It was not quite good enough on or off the pitch for us tonight and we’ll take our medicine.

“It did not feel like a 5-1 game for lots of the period but 15 minutes window in that second half that they scored three goals from set pieces pretty much and ones an absolute worldy and two poor errors from us and they got the better of us on set pieces.

“I will take full ownership on those goals. It’s been a tough night and quite a humbling one for us.

“We’ve had a lot of miles in the tank but we’ve been very good until this evening and we’ll have to wear that.”

Taunton Town have played three games in a week with the Maidenhead United FA Cup replay on Tuesday, October 15, the game at Basingstoke Town on the weekend and this match, but Luffman is not looking to make any excuses.

He said: “They were just better than us on the night. We felt we could come here and get the result and ultimately we’ve been left a lot short.

“We kept the ball really well in our half first half but did not look that frightening with it in the final third and got muscled off a couple bits and the second half they blew us away.

“We felt good about ourselves recently – we’ve had some good results against some good teams, we’ve taken a big bruise tonight but bruises heel.

“We need to think about what went wrong tonight, make sure that does not happen again. We need to do better. We would have taken three points from Basingstoke and Totten and if it was just 2-1 tonight we’d be more upbeat about it.

“But we will come back stronger from this.”