It was an evening of much irritation for Shaun Saunders’ Hawks at Lancing’s Culver Road on Tuesday with a goalless draw the outcome.

In a tense affair Whitehawk’s unbeaten start to the league season continued beneath the lights, and Saunders was swift to express his feelings following the final whistle:

“Frustrated, to be fair. I thought it was a fair result. It was end-to-end and it could have gone either way.”

“I thought Lancing played very well; scrapped and fought for every ball. They probably picked up too many second balls for my liking but yeah, we weren’t at our best.

But it’s another point on the board, so we’ll take the positives out of it. I felt first half we could have done better, I think if we got our noses in front then it would have been a different story.”

The Hawks were tasked with breaking down a seemingly impenetrable Lancing defence that remained resolute throughout, thwarting the few chances in a quiet opening half.

“It wasn’t to be, but it’s another point on the board and we move on.

We defended well, it’s another clean sheet so we’ll take that. As I say it was end-to-end but I felt defensively we were always locked up.”

“We’re frustrated because we felt it was an opportunity to get three points – we’re not going to dress it up any other way.

There were times when we played some good stuff but we weren’t at our best, we take the point, and we move.”

Tuesday evening showcased the Hawks’ three latest additions as Andrew Sesay, Kai Brown and Aderi Arthur-Dede all featured, with the former finding a place in the starting XI.

“It was difficult for them tonight because they’ve only had one training session – we did an hour Saturday morning – and obviously because we had Joel [Daly] and Charlie Lambert away tonight on holiday, so we had to throw them straight in.

It was a bit like a baptism of fire to be fair. I wasn’t expecting them to be introduced so quickly but it was forced on us. I thought they did well, they’ll be good players for us.”

Whitehawk return to action on Saturday with a trip to Corinthian in the FA Trophy, before finally returning home the following Tuesday with Ashford United set to visit in the Velocity Trophy.