LYDNEY captain Sam Arnott says back-to-back away defeats have shattered the Severnsiders’ confidence.

But he backed the Regentsholme outfit to improve after a third loss of the season at home to Ivybridge, who won 17-10 on Saturday.

Full-back Brett Turner edged the hosts in front with a penalty after 23 minutes but Ben Watts went over for Ivybridge on the stroke of half-time.

Matt Grieveson added the conversion and the visitors from Devon went in at half-time 7-3 to the good.

Jon Morgan extended the lead with a try after five minutes of the second half before Hayden Coles got a third try on the hour mark.

Mitch Pinkus converted the third touch down and Ivybridge were ahead 19-3.

Lydney hit back through wing Reuben Haile with six minutes remaining and Turner converted to reduce the gap.

But it was too little, too late for the Severnsiders and Arnott says his team need to be more clinical.

“The alarm bells aren’t ringing yet,” said Arnott, who made his first start of the season following a concussion in pre-season.

“It was hugely disappointing to lose our first game at home and it’s obviously been a disappointing start to the season.

“We controlled large parts of the game and we had a lot of chances but we conceded two first-phase tries which is disappointing too.

“Our confidence is shot. You could see that on Saturday.

“Having the two away games was always a tough start to the season but after their first try you could see heads starting to drop.

“We are bound to make mistakes, we’re only human but it’s a long season and we can improve on it.

“We do need to find our confidence again but there are positives.

“We’re creating a lot of chances but we need to be more clinical.

“If we weren’t creating chances I would be a lot more concerned.

“We’ve been putting in the performances but it’s been patchy.

“We need to play like that for 80 minutes, not just 10 or 15.

“We do need to start picking up points. We’re bottom with nothing to show for our efforts so far.”