Winston Trott Jr, the PHC coach, hopes Wednesday’s second-half performance against Dandy Town can kick-start their campaign after two opening losses, including a 6-1 defeat to Robin Hood last weekend.

PHC looked like their old selves with a second-half fightback that twice erased a two-goal deficit before two missed penalties and other wasted opportunities denied them the victory that would have taken them into the semi-finals.

“They missed a few more chances in there, too, they had a couple of breakaways,” Trott said. “We definitely didn’t take our chances, which would definitely have changed the game.

“The score should have been higher, we had at least four or five chances that we missed.

“We’re putting the work in, I guess it is just a matter of dialling in on what we need to do,

“It’s a process, we’re working on something and it’s going to take time. It’s not going to happen overnight, but as long as we follow the process that we’re working on we should be fine.”

Trott, who replaced Robert Bean as coach, is hoping his team can claim their first win of the season this weekend when they take on promoted Devonshire Colts, looking to bounce back from their 6-1 loss to Robin Hood at home last Sunday.

“It’s a tough job, you have to keep balancing the players, because we have a lot of players, and try to make sure that we keep them all focused,” he said. “That’s probably the most challenging part. We need to get some points.

“Even in the game on the weekend, we were never out of the game even though we conceded all those goals. It wasn’t like we got outplayed, we just had some mental lapses and let in the goals.”

PHC also had a big loss early in the 2019-20 season when they were hammered 7-0 by Dandy Town in their Dudley Eve opener before handing a similarly big 6-1 loss to X-Roads to advance to the semi-finals.

This time Devonshire Cougars and Dandy Town have advanced from their group, while the two semi-finalists from Group A will have to be determined by the drawing of lots which is scheduled for this evening North Village, Robin Hood and Somerset from Group A all finished with three points from 1-0 wins, after Village beat Hood on Wednesday night meaning goal difference and goals scored have failed to break the tie.

The semi-finals, scheduled for October 28, will see Cougars playing the Group A runners-up while Town take on the Group A winners.