DAISY Hill are still searching for their first home league win of the North West Counties League season after losing 5-3 to Steeton in an incident-packed game at New Sirs on Saturday.

Individual errors cost Daisy dearly inside a nightmare opening half hour that saw them concede three goals, before Connor Hughes and Jordan Cover struck before half time to bring them back into the game.

A Jake O’Brien penalty then levelled the scores early in the second half, but two further goals from the visitors ensured they collected the points.

Daisy manager Leighton Mills couldn’t hide his frustration after the game.

“I don’t actually think we played too badly today, but again we have lost early goals and gone three down early in a game”, said Mills.

“It was all down to mistakes and poor decisions. They didn’t have to work hard for their goals.

“If you look at the game, from about 30 minutes to 70 minutes we played well and were the better team, but we only started playing when we went 3-0 down.

“We got back to 3-2 with two good goals, and going in at half time it looked like there was only one team going to win, and that was us.

“We then got it back to three all with a stonewall penalty, but then stopped doing what we had been doing well, getting the ball down the channels.

“We started trying to play football on a difficult pitch, and then lost the ball which led to their fourth goal, which to be fair was a good finish, and the fifth goal was a great strike but a hit and hope.

“We just need to do the basics better and stop the individual mistakes. Once the players cross that line, it’s down to them, they need to stop the mistakes and work on getting better”.

Daisy Hill’s next game in the North West Counties League First Division North is tonight when they make the short trip to face Ashton Town (7.45 pm).

Not for the first time this season, Daisy were caught cold early on, and conceded an opener after just 70 seconds.

Th home defence was undone by quick break down the right, and when Tobias Jeffrey drove the ball low into the box, Luke Baldwin sidefooted home from close range.

It got worse on 16 minutes when Steeton went two ahead, after a Daisy attack was thwarted when a Hensley Mills shot was pushed away by Steeton keeper Stuart Cross.

The Yorkshiremen broke quickly upfield and a long ball forward led to a race between Steeton striker Kayle Price and Daisy defender Harrison Masuamba, with the striker winning the chase to toe poke the ball past advancing keeper Sajjad Sulaiman.

Steeton increased their lead in the 27th minute when Sulaiman, under pressure from two Steeton players, could only palm out a corner kick into the path of Thomas Robinson, who volleyed home at the far post.

But Daisy’s comeback began seven minutes from half time when Connor Hughes picked up the ball wide on the right flank, cut inside and curled a delightful shot into the far corner of the net for his fifth goal in successive games.

As the game moved into first half stoppage time, Daisy captain Jordan Cover added a second goal for his side, picking up a long ball from Jake O’Brien, advancing in on goal and picking his spot with a cool finish past the keeper.

Daisy picked up where they left off as the second half began, and drew level just before the hour from the penalty spot.

Jordan Cover was upended on the edge of the penalty area, and Jake O’Brien made no mistake from the spot as he sent the keeper the wrong way.

However, any hopes of a remarkable home comeback were dashed when Steeton went ahead once more five minutes later, with leading scorer Kayle Price grabbing his second of the game with a smart finish past Sulaiman.

The visitors wrapped up the points with a fifth goal in the 70th minute, when Josh McKiernon rifled in a shot from over 30 yards out that swerved in the air and dipped just under the crossbar past the despairing outstretched arm of Sulaiman.