BILLERICAY boss Craig Edwards says there will be no hard feelings if he comes face to face with three former players at Maldon & Tiptree tonight.

Defenders Adam Flanagan and Ian Cousins, and striker James Lawson, all left New Lodge this summer to join lower league Maldon, and Flanagan and Lawson left with barbed comments from Edwards.

The Town boss said Flanagan went after he “demanded a pay rise”, and Lawson had “wasted his career” after going from Southend United to Maldon in four years.

Edwards said: “At the end of the day we have brought better players in now.

“With all due respect to Flanagan, he’s not as good as Jerome Sobers.

“And with Cousins, he was not getting in the side at centre back for us and he knows he is not a natural left-back.

“Everyone has heard what I have said about Lawson, but I wish him well.

“And now, as a club, we have drawn a line under it, and if I see any of them at the game will be no hard feelings.”

Town suffered their first pre-season defeat at home to Conference South heavyweights Boreham Wood on Saturday.

Edwards said he felt the demands of playing four games in seven days had caught up with his players.

One big blow for Town, though, was a knee injury suffered by Jerome Sobers.

The former Bromley man has been excellent for Town so far and will now undergo a scan on suspected ligament damage.

Edwards said he would put out an experimental side for the tonight’s game, which kicks-off at the Wallace Binder Stadium at 7.45pm.