Reserve-team joint-manager John Bright has kindly sent over his thoughts on the side’s 4-1 defeat in their Mid Wales League (South) game at St Harmon.
‘Brighty’ feels the Reserves are going to need to show more commitment in the coming weeks if they are to give themselves a chance of climbing the table.
“After a long spell with no games it was going to be a tough game at St Harmon although,with the addition of Jordan McQueen, Liam Tomkins, Josh Gardner, Jamie Blythe and Tom Crichton. we had a strengthened squad and fancied our chances.
“Playing against the wind for the first half meant it was difficult to keep any pressure on their back line and we constantly had to defend with the ball hardly making it out of our half.
“St Harmon capitalised on a defensive error and took the lead but we held on and defended well to go in at half-time just one down but, to be fair to Durbys in goal, he didn’t really have a lot of work to do in the first 45.
“With the wind at our backs in the second half, we had St Harmon penned back, and hit them with attack after attack.
“We drew level when Tom Hooper curled a corner in from the left which looped straight in over the keeper.
“We continued to press for a second and had a strong penalty claim turned down when the lively Josh Gardner got clattered in the box.
“Their keeper cleared a long ball, their striker hit a speculative shot from the edge of our box which took a deflection, looping over Durbs, struck the post and spun over the line.
“Within 90 seconds of taking the lead, St Harmon broke and a clinical strike beat Durbs at the near post to make it 3-1.
“Some heads had dropped and a 4th goal was hit home following a slip by Durbs which prevented him getting to the strike.
“The score didn’t really tell the story of the game and a draw probably would have been a fair result.
“It was disappointing to lose, and was even more frustrating with the lack of effort and fight from some of the players.
“Maybe this was down to the long break without football, or maybe from going out on a Friday night, or just down to fitness?
“It underlined that it is even more imperative players make the effort to train midweek and reflect on their individual performances.”