Cherry “gutted” with Marske defeat

Tom Cherry was disappointed that his side didn’t give the best version of themselves in defeat to Marske United yesterday.
AFC were on the back foot for much of the 90 minutes as Marske comfortably reached the last 16 with a 5-0 win.
And Cherry felt his side would always struggle once they went down to ten men. He said: “We’re all gutted.
“The sending off early on killed us, and it shouldn’t have been a sending off. They changed the rule on that. But the ref sent him off so we had to deal with it, and playing against such a strong side was always going to be tough with ten men.
“I’m just disappointed because we could have got more from the game. We said to the lads not to have any regrets, don’t leave anything in the changing rooms. I don’t think we did that today.
“They moved the ball really well but we didn’t give ourselves the best chance. That’s the worst thing. If you get beaten by the better side then that’s football, but to go out the way we have is disappointing.”
He felt Marske were comfortably the best side he’s seen at the level and is backing them to win the competition outright, but apologised to the fans having felt his side should have done more.
“They were definitely on top without doubt, but if we come in at 1-0 we still have something to hang on to. Once we went down to ten men, they were that good at switching the ball that we couldn’t get near them.
“I feel sorry for the fans. Around 100 travelled here today and they had to watch that.”
And with a quick turnaround before Tuesday evening’s game against Atherstone Town, Cherry said the eleven could look different with changes expected.
“There will be changes, there has to be after that. There were a couple of people unavailable today which hasn’t helped, but that’s the level we’re at.
“We’ll go back to the league and if we want to go on and do something, this has got to galvanise us.
“They’re around us in the table, and and if we want to kick on in the league then we need to be taking points from the sides up there with us.”