Dandy Town began the defence of their Premier Division title with a 3-1 home loss to Robin Hood, the same team that beat them in the FA Cup final in April.

Antwan Russell, a former Hornet, netted twice in the battle between last season’s top two league teams, before substitute Aaron Nelson cushioned the victory with a third goal in the 82nd minute.

It was the perfect response by Robin Hood after last weekend’s shocking 7-0 thrashing at the hands of North Village in the Dudley Eve Trophy.

“Yes, we had to bounce back from last week and were looking for any type of result,” Kyle Lightbourne, the Hood coach, said.

“I set the team up today to be difficult to play against, we denied them the space in between the lines in midfield.

“In our first couple of games I asked for us to press the ball high up the pitch and we went away from that today. I asked the guys to put in a big shift today, we didn’t come second last year for all the ability we have in the team. We came second because of our work rate as well.

“At times it wasn’t pretty, but after you come off a defeat like that you have to take stock and for us the coaches, that was our game plan this week, to not throw caution to the wind and for our big players to step up. Today Antwan stepped up, scored a good free kick, scored a penalty and should have had another one.

“I’m pleased with the result, Dandy Town are a good team and we know that, but maybe that’s the result they need to know that everybody else wants to get off to a good start, too.

“We’ve got three points, are up and running for the season and now we have to keep our feet on the ground. We’re back at it this week and we’ll work hard for our next game against Flanagan’s [Onions] on Saturday night.”

Town will aim to bounce back quickly, too, with Jomar Wilkinson, their coach, admitting the team lacked sharpness yesterday.

“I’m definitely disappointed to get off on this type of start, but it’s a long season,” he said.

“We’ll lick our wounds, go back to the drawing board and come back out ready to fight. I saw some players play selfish today, playing for themselves and not the team, and we can’t afford that.

“I also saw seven or eight players who fought, so that’s encouraging. Obviously this is still early in the season and it’s a building process so we’re not going to push the panic button. We’ll recognise our weaknesses and our wrongs from this game and try to correct them for the next.

“I’d rather have the hiccups now rather than later. We certainly have some things we need to address but all is not lost. We understand how the league works so we’re not going to panic.”

Only three matches were played yesterday in the first round of league matches, with the games involving promoted sides Flanagan’s Onions and Somerset Eagles, who were scheduled to play Somerset Trojans and Devonshire Colts respectively, postponed because of a shortage of referees.

A total of 12 goals were scored in all this weekend as North Village carried on from their thumping of Robin Hood with a 4-2 win over Boulevard, while PHC Zebras opened their campaign with a 2-0 win over Devonshire Cougars.

“The goals on our end were good, but everything in between that could go wrong kind of went wrong,” Devarr Boyles, the new Village coach, said.

“And some of it was just our players not having the right attitude as far as doing the simple things, and doing the simple things well.”