IT WAS a case of 'if they didn't know before they certainly do now' for Ramsbottom United's new management team of Andy Grimshaw, Jimmy Clarke and Chris Burke.

Fitness seems to be a problem for a few players and a lot of hard work is going to have to be done on the training ground to turn things around.

This is a game the Rams would normally expect to take three points from, but it was clear from the start that this Flixton team would present plenty of problems.

On 12 minutes Mike Langhorn lost the ball midway into his own half and presented Flixton's Lee Mathews with a clear run on goal, but his shot was well saved by Simon Marsh.

On 20 minutes Langhorn had to leave the field with an injury to his stomach. This allowed Phil Porter to resume in the right back role on his return to the club from Salford City.

Dale Fielding reverted to his more familiar role on the left side and in the 38th minute it nearly paid dividends as he cut in from the left and shot narrowly wide.

The rest of the half was evenly matched but neither team managed to break the deadlock.

Flixton got off to a much better start in the second half and it looked as though it would only be a matter of time before they scored.

The goal actually arrived on 62 minutes, Flixton's Mark Hall rose unchallenged to head powerfully past Marsh from a corner.

Rammy got back into the game on 70 minutes, a cross from Carl Lomax was bundled into the net from Russ Brierley after a goalmouth scramble to make it 1-1.

However, the equaliser seemed to spur Flixton on.

On 75 minutes a Lee Mathews shot was handled on the line by the Rams' Liam Bowden which resulted in Bowden being sent off.

Mathews took the spot kick and sent Marsh the wrong way to put Flixton 2-1 up.

Ramsbottom huffed and puffed but never really caused the Flixton rearguard any problems.

Grimshaw and Co have asked for far more in terms of workrate and skill from the players otherwise fresh faces will be brought in.

RAMSBOTTOM UTD...1 FLIXTON...2