HULLBRIDGE Sports boss Darren Manning admitted he made changes to his squad for the Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy defeat to Stansted because the Essex Senior League form remains his priority.

Sports travelled to Stansted, who are level on points with Hullbridge at the top of the division.

And although Manning was disappointed to see his side crash out of the competition at the quarter-final stage, he admitted that remaining in contention for the title is the most important thing at the moment.

Manning said: “We want to win every game we play and we want to win every competition we are involved in, but we need to prioritise.

“The league is our bread and butter and although we wanted to do well in the Gordon Brasted Memorial Trophy and get through to the next round, we had one eye on this Saturday’s game against Sporting Bengal United.

“Stansted were the better team and deserved to win, but I made changes to the team because of our run of games coming up.

“The match gave me an opportunity to give some players who are coming back from injuries some minutes on the pitch.

“We needed to do that because we have got a long slog of games between now and January.”

Adebola Sotoyinbo struck the crossbar as Hullbridge went in search of the opening goal of the encounter.

And although the first half ended goalless, Stansted broke the deadlock just two minutes after the interval.

The hosts doubled their advantage with 65 minutes on the clock to give Sports a mountain to climb.

Hullbridge’s hopes of staging a late comeback were ended when Stansted completed the scoring on 73 minutes.