WESTON will use Saturday’s defeat to Boreham Wood as a lesson in their bid to win promotion from the Blue Square South, manager Craig Laird says.

The Seagulls let slip a two-goal lead against their opponents to lose 4-2 at the Woodspring Stadium and end a run of four-straight wins in the league.

But Laird says the team will use the result to spur them on and bounce back against Billericay Town on Saturday.

On Saturday Wood started off the match the better side, but it was Weston who took the lead against the run of play on 22 minutes through Chas Hemmings’ speculative 30-yard lob over the head of goalkeeper James Russell.

Wood came back at Weston with strikers Cliff Akurang and Omer Riza shooting just wide, but the home side doubled their advantage on 40 minutes when Ross Stearn was brought down inside the penalty area by Ben Nunn.

He picked himself up to put the home side further ahead from the penalty spot.

Wood finally got the goal their play deserved, although there was a touch of fortune about the goal they pulled back on the stroke of half-time, Seagulls skipper Ben Kirk heading Graeme Montgomery’s cross into his own net under no pressure.

In the second half Kington and Martin Slocombe went close for Weston while Maud Vilhetec and Akurang did the same for Wood, but the away team finally restored parity on 72 minutes.

Callum Reynolds headed home a Montgomery free-kick, and within a minute they were ahead as substitute Greg Morgan left Weston’s Lloyd Irish standing with a 35-yard effort.

And Wood added gloss to the scoreline on 90 minutes as substitute Inih Effiong hit the crossbar and Akurang finally scored with a simple tap-in from the rebound.

The result saw Wood go up to third in the league while Weston fell to 11th, although they are only three points off a play-off spot.

Following the result Laird said: “We didn’t play well and went 2-0 up, and we probably should have been able to see the game out.

“We’re all disappointed and the players are gutted about losing the match from that position, but it’s a good sign they are, as it shows they all want to do much better next time out.

“We’ll learn things from the result, but in this league the teams going for promotion will always take points off each other – it’s the teams below us that we need to win against.”

Next up for Weston is a first-ever visit to Billericay, who won promotion from the Ryman League last season and are currently sitting in 13th.

The Seagulls then face Frome Town in the second round of the Somerset Premier Cup on Tuesday, with the match kicking off at the Woodspring Stadium at 7.45pm.