Baldock Town manager Rob Bates said the defeat at Welwyn Garden City was their poorest showing of pre-season but gave praise for the talent of the hosts and said there were still positives to take.
The Reds lost 5-0 at Herns Lane to the Southern League side, Jack Vasey getting two and Callum Taylor three, but it took 22 minutes for Welwyn to get their noses in front.
He said: "You have to give credit where credit is due, they were fantastic. Their quality on the ball with one touch or two touches is why they are with they are. They should be pushing for promotion.
"I said to the boys that this would be a good test but we won’t have the ball. We need to work on our defensive shape and that didn’t go as planned but against quality opposition, it was going to be hard work.
"It was a footballing lesson but that’s where we want to be. For the first 20 minutes we took the game to them and we had the better chances.
"But as the game went on, they changed their shape and our midfield got overrun."
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