ROGER Herridge admitted to feeling mixed emotions after seeing his Binfield side's four-match winning run ended by title contenders Kidlington, writes Richard Ashton.

The Moles boss believes the narrow 2-1 defeat at Hill Farm Lane shows how far his side have come in the past month, but was he left angered at the nature of the winning goal - awarded by the linesman when there appeared doubt over whether the ball had crossed the line.

He told the News: "We've played an awful lot worse in the last month and won the game and this was probably one of our best performances of the season.

"It's disappointing. I thought we caused them all sorts of problems in the first half. We like to be known as a side who gets the ball down and plays football but sometimes you have to get the ball in behind them and we used JJ's pace.

"I thought on the balance of the 90 minutes it should have been a draw.

"But we've improved a lot in the past month. I think the players who have come back in like Chris Dean, Carl Withers and Liam Ferdinand have added to us and we are in a better place."

And discussing the decision to award Lewis Gabbidon's 75th-minute winner, a disappointed Herridge confessed: "I'm not sure he saw the ball go over the line, I think he's presumed it's gone over the line. It was harsh really but there were some good performances.

"I'm sure thee officials are all nice fellas and the young linesman on my side was excellent. But I think two of the three had a bad day. You have to use your arms for leverage but I thought some of their challenges could have been dealt with, and for the winning goal, I don't know how he can give it from that angle."

Binfield had earlier taken the lead midway through the second half through centre back Michael Walton, but a deflected Lewis Coyle strike levelled matters.

And Herridge, who believes his team needs a more clinical edge, had praise for his young defender.

He revealed: "Michael is only 18, he's a central midfield player playing at centre back and he was up against two really good forwards but I thought he did really well and was our man-of-the-match.

"We need to have more goals from all around the park, you can't just rely on your centre forwards. We need more goals from midfield but it was good to see Michael score."

The Moles face a testing month with fixtures including Highworth Town, Bracknell, Oxford City Nomads and Highmoor Ibis, but Herridge added it will give an opportunity to "show us where we are."

He concluded: "I said at the start of the season a top six finish was the target as we'd had to rebuild during the summer and that is still the target. I have said before we are a young team who will make mistakes but we have to learn from those and make sure we don't keep making them. That has improved in the past month."