Boss Craig Parry disappointed with finishing as Worksop Town lose season opener at Stockton Town

The Tigers dominated the early stages of the fixture, but they conceded against the run of play, as Matty Tymon netted his fifth goal in two games against Worksop on the counter attack on 12 minutes, before Nathan Mulligan’s free-kick took a favourable deflection to give the hosts a commanding lead.

James Hanson then headed Worksop back into the game, with Seb Malkowski keeping the Tigers in the fixture with a penalty save just before the hour.

But it wasn’t enough as Parry’s side failed to find a leveller after 19 attempts, overall.

“I thought it was a good game against two good sides that I believe will be fighting it out in and around the mix at the end of the season,” said Parry.

“Performance-wise I cannot criticise them apart from if we are going to do well this year then we are going to have to score goals and we could have been 3-0 up before they scored.

"But if you don’t take your chances then you’re open to being sucker punched and, in this league, you have to make sure you get your nose in front when on top.

“Their goalie has made some great saves today, but we also had other opportunities too.

"You look at the last five minutes and we got balls into the box.

"But we rushed it and when we’re putting that many balls across the six-yard box then we are putting our bodies on the line and diving in front of shots.”

The most pleasing aspect of Worksop’s display was their use of the second ball, with Terry Hawkridge being crucial to that phase of play.

“From a tactical point of view, they couldn’t get near Terry, ” added Parry.

"He was creating chances and playing good balls into the right areas, and we were getting on the end of them and creating overloads and opportunities.

“I could go down the full side and they did exactly what I wanted them to do.

"But unfortunately, we’re on the wrong end of the stick and that’s down to having enough chances to finish three games off and we didn’t.”