BRIMSCOMBE boss Sam Prior insists his side's 3-2 FA Vase first round defeat could be a blessing in disguise, writes Paul Joannou.

Sol Wanjah Smith gave Western League Cribbs a sixth-minute lead, but Ben Deakin netted parity two minutes later. Ben Dowdell put the visitors back in front before Ollie Pitt levelled things up for the Lilywhites. Cribbs stamped their authority on the game - Dowdell added his second and his side's third.

Holidaying in Vegas, Prior missed the cup defeat and put former boss Phil Baker, Neil Long and Tim Wilkins in charge.

Prior said: “In my three years in charge we’ve always had good cup runs and got to the third round last season, but it does create a backlog and if we can put points on the board, we may get ahead.

"I’m gutted we’re out. We wanted to do well, money isn’t the most important thing compared to how far you can go, the carrot is dangled.

"We’ll pick the bones from the defeat, but we’re gutted to miss out and a trip to Newport IW FC in the next round."

Prior is now looking ahead to Saturday with the visit of Abingdon Town in the Hellenic Challenge Cup.

He added: “I don’t know too much about them. I’ll do my digging before training, but I’m still gathering information about Saturday. Hopefully we’ll have a few long term injured players coming back like Matt Bennett.”