For Hornchurch boss Jimmy McFarlane it was almost the perfect night as his side picked up a 2-0 win at VCD Athletic.

The Urchins first league victory of the season came courtesy of a goal in each half from George Purcell and Omar Beckles, but still wasn’t enough to move them off the foot of the table.

But the Hornchurch chief was delighted with the number of firsts for the Urchins – the opening win, Purcell’s first goal and their sole clean sheet.

And all in all it was almost the perfect evening for McFarlane, though it was slightly tinged as Junior Luke picked up his fifth booking of the season.

“I was a bit critical at half time because I thought we started really well for the first 20-25 minutes but then took our foot off the pedal a little bit,” said McFarlane

“And although we let them in our goalkeeper hasn’t had a save to make for the second game on the trot. Overall, I am very pleased. It’s a clean sheet, George is off the mark and we are off the mark so it’s all plusses.

“Junior is an honest lad who gives 100 per cent and he just needs to slow down at times when he’s in possession.

“But he was never going to get the ball on this occasion and he was tackling from the wrong side.

“In two weeks time he’ll miss a game and if we put a run together now it’s not going to be easy for him to get back in.”

McFarlane admitted he felt the pressure going into last night’s game, which he believed was a must win encounter for his side even at this early stage of the season.

“I slept better on Friday night than I did last night because these are hard games when you are trying to get your first win,” he added.

“You’ve got Maidstone and Margate where there’s less pressure because people don’t expect you to win. You expect your team to win because you are the manager but coming here it was a game we had to win, it was a massive six pointer and in the end we won and I thought we won comfortable.

“They had loads of possession but they never really hurt us and I thought our back four was excellent all night long.”

McFarlane and the Urchins buried another hoodoo last night as they scored a goal from set piece when Beckles headed home Tom Davis’ pinpoint cross.

It’s always been a bug bear of the Bridge Avenue boss but he now hopes that is the first of many.

“The other big plus for me is that we scored from a set piece,” said McFarlane.

“That is one of my biggest criticisms of that changing room. I said it at half time again last night, but I’m very pleased.

“It was the perfect corner and centre halves should be scoring from balls like that.”