TAMWORTH boss Andy Peaks admitted his side rarely does well on the opening day of the season after sliding to a narrow defeat against Scunthorpe United.
The game revived memories of the clubs battling for promotion from National League North two seasons ago.
Tamworth came out on top then, but it was The Iron’s turn to dish out an early season setback this time.
Oliver Ewing scored the winner on his debut as newly-promoted Scunthorpe claimed a 2-1 victory.
Danny Whitehall curled an excellent free-kick over the wall and into the far corner to give them an early lead.
Haydn Hollis fired Tamworth’s equaliser, in off the crossbar from a half-cleared throw-in, but Scunthorpe regained the lead before the break through Ewing’s neat finish after Whitehall’s step-over.
Tamworth went close to a second-half equaliser when debutant Jack Evans’ effort hit a post.
Peaks told Tamworth’s X account: “It was a tough first game of the season, but I’m disappointed. We knew that, Scunthorpe would be a decent team.
“But we huffed and puffed, and never really got going.
“The opening day of the season can be very much like that and momentum’s all a massive part of it, and I think that we handed them that initiative.
“Jas Singh in goal didn’t have a great deal to do. So that was the frustrating bit for me.
“They came here with a game plan. I thought they executed it really well. They know how we play and they stopped the game a lot during the second half.
“When we did have some momentum, each time there was a way of the game stopped.
“But we needed to find a bit of quality and we didn’t show enough to win the game. A point would’ve been a fair result, but we all know football’s not always fair. We’ve played a lot, lot better than that and got nothing.
“We said before the game, it’s the first out of 46. And we’ve never been great the first game of the season in the last few years. So, I’m not going to beat myself up about it.”
