The Saints threw away a good start against a determined Staines Albion side today and fell to a frustrating home defeat. A clearly disappointed Kevin had some very strong words to say in his match report;
"After a bright start Saints stormed into a two goal lead with Alex Mattock converting a fine run by Matt Burton and Tom hitting home a rebound from his own shot. However following this fine start Saints sank into a defensive abyss with too many players playing below their usual standards, in fact such was the ineptitude from the midfield and defence, that even when two unmarked Staines players were pointed out at a corner we still failed to mark them and suffered the inevitable consequence. 2-1 half time.
Even after this wake up call we did not sort ourselves out in the second half and only because of Josh did we not fall behind. In fact Saints went 3-1ahead through Tom R but Staines eventually levelled as our defensive weakness was cruelly exposed. We had a glimmer of hope when some poor goalkeeping gifted Tom his hat trick but again we failed to secure the game and Staines were able to take advantage of our errors to first equalise and then to score the winning goal.
With each corner today we looked pathetic and overall our defensive play was poor. It's obvious to me that some of today's players need to look at themselves and ask themselves questions about their attitude and focus. Too many players went missing and there was far too much casualness in our play. At this level any sloppy play gets punished and we can not afford to let ourselves down like this again if we want to mount a sustained challenge this season.
I am going to single four players for whom this is not a problem. Matt Burton, Tom Richards, Josh Betts and Christian Shaw - the other displays today were, I'm afraid, dismal!
Man of the Match - Matt Burton
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