On the plus side, the big Dutch defender made his first league start of 2024-25 after missing the first half of the season after fracturing his ankle in a pre-season friendly at Harrogate Town in July.
Balker lasted 70 minutes in a psychologically important moment in the context of his campaign.
Unfortunately, the game – which also saw owner Kevin Nagle in attendance after jetting in from the US – also had milestone significance for Town, who lost at league level for the first time in 116 days.
You had to go back even earlier to September 24 for the previous occasion that Town saw their colours lowered on home soil in all competitions, 11 games ago.
Balker, preparing for Tuesday’s huge game with Birmingham City at the John Smith’s Stadium, said: “Of course, it’s good to be back, but I hoped to have a different impact than a loss.
“But it is what it is. I am happy to be back and hopefully in the next game, I can help the team to a win.
“It felt like we were not on it. Especially the quality on the ball, which wasn’t good enough.
“It had nothing to really do with the running or anything else. We won plenty of duels, but on the ball, we were not good enough or clean enough.
“We did not really create big chances, we had a lot of the ball, but didn’t do enough with it. It’s something we need to work on and also defend better.
“We will look at it and focus on Birmingham. We need to analyse what went wrong and hopefully Birmingham will be a different game.”
Town are assessing midfielder Ben Wiles after he came off with a foot injury on Saturday. Ruben Roosken is back from suspension and available for Tuesday’s game with Blues.
Discussion about this post