KJM SPORT REPORT Millbrook AFC 0 Saltash United 1
- Details
- Created on Wednesday, 24 August 2022 06:12
- Last Updated on Wednesday, 15 February 2023 10:45
- Published on Wednesday, 24 August 2022 06:12
- Written by KEVIN MARRIOTT at Jenkins Park
That’s what the scoreline suggests anyway. In truth the Ashes were the better side by some distance and should have won by a bigger margin.
Ashes player-manager Danny Lewis felt his side’s first half performance was as well as they have played this season and was only frustrated that they weren’t three or four clear by the break.
For Millbrook, this was a strange performance. Only a week after winning at Mousehole, they looked lethargic for long spells and their usual rhythm was missing.
Brook manager Macca Brown said: “I have absolutely no complaints about the result to be honest, 1-0 in the end looks like a tight scoreline and we could have maybe nicked a point in the second half when we were much better.
“But in the first half we were a bit of a shambles to be fair and probably should have been 3-0 down at half time.
“The game was very similar to the United v Liverpool game 24 hours before to be honest with one team ready, alert and high energy and the other still in the changing rooms and not at the races at all, especially without the ball.
“I’m not sure what was really wrong with us in the first half, we had a great chance after 30 seconds but the positives stopped there.
“It looked like a really tired performance, and tired legs lead to tired minds and that’s a recipe for disaster.
“Our team performances recently have been outstanding, but in the first half the players just seemed to worry about themselves, there was little constructive communication and organisation and those three things combined meant units didn’t function cohesively and we were all over the place defensively, which is uncharacteristic of us, especially recently.
“Saltash had a number of chances, exploiting the space we were allowing them and were probably kicking themselves not to be out of sight at the half time whistle, but thanks to Chris (Wearing) and to be fair the defenders throwing themselves in the way of things at times, that wasn’t the case.
“Thankfully we could regroup at half time, and fair play the lads knew they weren’t good enough and whilst it shouldn’t take to half time to realise that, we were a different team second half.
“I still think we perhaps lacked that bit of belief and sharpness which would have given us more of a cutting edge but we certainly looked like a team again.
“I did think if we could just turn the screw a little bit more and get one we would go on and win it, but our output in the final third wasn’t good enough so I can have no complaints about coming away with nothing in the end.
“It’s the worst kind of defeat because you take regrets home with you, and you feel like you’ve beaten yourselves somewhat.
“Saltash probably couldn’t believe their luck first half with us being so flat and credit to them they caused us issues.
“It was our eighth game in 23 days and I probably should have freshened up the team more than I did. We’ve had a tough week and the Saturday to Tuesday turnaround is tough, but we can’t make excuses because we were ok second half, we just weren’t at the races from the word go.
“But equally, in the past week we’ve played three teams who want to be picking up the league trophy in April, we’ve taken four points, conceded just one goal in each game which were all indirectly from a set piece.
“We have a little six-day break now before Shepton Mallet, where we can reflect on our start and recover.
“We’ve been delighted with our start, this time last year we had four points, and it took us until the last weekend of October to get into double figures which is where we are now.
“We’ve shown we can mix it with the best teams in the league even when we aren’t quite at it, so there’s plenty of positives to take that we can build on and that is exactly what we will do ahead of Shepton Mallet next week.”
Millbrook C Wearing, J Richards, L Murray, J Wood (B Goulty 62), D Youlden, E Goodman, K O’Melia, T Love-Holmes (R Knight 62), C Kenny (J Toulson 53), S Thomson, J Foster (J Johnson 76)
Saltash J Duffey, D Barker, C Hall, C O’Brien, S Leary, H Wilson, A Cairo (C Merrin 65), J Miller, S Hughes (S Farrant 79), M Smith (L Landricombe 55), D Lewis (E James 79)
Referee Matt Redmond
SWSN Star Callum O’Brien (Saltash Utd)
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