Silkmen 'keeper Jon Brain was only beaten by a contentious penalty at the Moss Rose on Saturday, we caught up with him to have a chat about his return to the side, the Lincoln game and beyond.

You're back in the side after a short break. Are you pleased to be playing again?

"I was obviously disappointed to have been left out for a few games for a bit of an enforced break, but no player likes being on the sidelines and so I'm pleased that I've done enough to get back into the side and we have been in decent form since then with a few good results up to Saturday."

The talking point on Saturday was obviously the penalty, can you talk us through that from your viewpoint?

"Well, pretty much everyone who has seen the replay is adamant that it wasn't a penalty and you can see that by the direction of the ball. The lads have all seen it and all feel very aggrieved that it cost us the game.

"We both went for the same ball, it was a bit of a 50-50 and I got there first and the ball flies off sideways. He was facing in the wrong direction to have played the ball in that direction.

"I'd certainly not gone for the man and was only focusing on the ball. He came in a bit from behind so I certainly wasn't making any motion towards him. Then he has gone over me and bought himself a penalty.

"I'm not sure if the referee was unsighted a bit because of bodies in the area, but he was very quick to give it."

We had plenty of chances at the other end, is it hard to watch that as a 'keeper?

"It's something I can't do much about from the other end of the pitch, but looking for the positives, at least we are creating a lot of chances. As a unit overall we played very well on Saturday and the rest of the lads are keeping that in mind and not letting the defeat get us down.

"It was a big game for us because we wanted to keep the run going and we have so many Lincoln connections but their 'keeper did very well during the game and the ball just didn't drop for us, but that's football sometimes.

"We need to keep playing good football and creating the opportunities and the goals will come."

How do you think you have done so far this season?

"We conceded a lot of goals last year and we wanted to put a stop to that. I've played in eight League games so far this season and we've only lost twice, and I have three clean sheets which could have been four but for the penalty on Saturday.

"I think we have been playing well, better than last season, had a good run of results in the lead-up to Saturday and certainly warranted more than we got on the day.

"Whilst the result was disappointing, we played well and you could tell from the reaction at the final whistle that the fans were happy with the display, if not the result.

"We are looking much more solid as a unit and need to bounce back from this."

So everyone is determined to get back to winning ways?

"Definitely. We were all very down on Saturday night because we didn't think we deserved it, but we were back in training this morning and everyone is just looking forward to the next game.

"We know we are capable of winning matches if we keep playing like we did on Saturday. I didn't think we looked like losing the game at any point, but that's football and now we can't wait for Friday night and a trip to Cheltenham."