The Blues were handed a defeat midweek in difficult conditions at league leaders Bala Town and Cochlin believes that poor luck and inexperience of playing together went against the side.

“It was a tight game with a long journey and heavy pitch. Give or take the first [goal], where you take out the mistake and, the fact they scored straight after half-time, I personally think we were a little bit unlucky,” he said.

“At one stage, we did miss Cortez – with his presence he could have made a few chances for himself.”

Port Talbot hit the road again on Saturday with Aberystwyth the hosts and Cochlin anticipates another difficult encounter.

“It’s been quite a hard week with another big challenge at Aberystwyth. Looking at the table their right next to us and I think that’ll be the case for the rest of the season. We’ll both be there or thereabout – these are the type of games which can make the difference.

“I think we’ve done OK. It’s been a bit unfortunate with the game against Carmarthen.

“Before that game, we beat The New Saints and got a good draw against Airbus, and then Carmarthen hit us for six and put us in our place. The win against Newtown was a good sign of character.

“I think it’s a sign of a new squad that we’re a little bit inconsistent in what we’re doing. When we get into our sixth, seventh and eighth games, we should start to show signs of an understanding and a coming together, and start understanding each other’s game a little more.

“We started well with two great results and then we came a cropper against Carmarthen. If we were a solid team which had been together for a couple of years, there’s no doubt in my mind, we’d of won the third game. Newtown would then have been our third win, meaning the Bala game would’ve been a completely different story.”

This article originally appeared on the official Port Talbot Town FC website – http://www.porttalbottown.co.uk