Hinckley AFC assistant manager Paul Tomlinson said defensive mistakes cost his side during yesterday’s 4-1 defeat to Ilkeston Town.
Having been level at half time courtesy of Lee Butler’s free kick, the game was all to play for in the second half but Ilkeston took control to record their biggest win of the season so far.
Tomlinson said individual errors at the back meant AFC had to chase the game and caused heavy legs in the final half hour.
He said: “I was really pleased with our first half performance. We dug in and got to half time, we scored a good free kick and I thought the half time score was a fair reflection of the game at 1-1.
“But it’s mistakes which are costing us dearly for the first, second and the third goals, and then we ran out of steam trying to get back into the game.
“We could be a sort of team who comes here and accepts a 2-1 defeat but we will never play like that. We always want to try and get back in the game.
“Steve Hart had a great opportunity to put us 2-1 up, and then the goalkeeper made an unbelievable save from George (Bowerman) which would have brought us back to 3-2.
“For an hour we competed well but we started to tire during the last 30 minutes, especially having lost two of our midfielders in Lee Butler and Jean Kalenda through injury niggles.”
Tomlinson was full of praise for Steve Chettle’s side, who he felt were the best footballing side he has seen in the Midland League First Division for a couple of years.
But he said Hinckley are in a rebuilding phase having lost key players to higher level clubs over the summer and at the start of this season, with Alex Morris joining Mickleover Sports and Dom Smith signing for Halesowen two he highlighted..
“The players have had a discussion and maybe felt that one or two weren’t working hard enough but I don’t agree with that.
“The lads have worked hard but you can’t replace Mozza (Morris), or Dom Smith, or Ryan Seal that easily. These players aren’t out there to be picked off another club.
“Carl deserves a huge amount of credit for the calibre of player that he brings to the club, but when you lose two centre halves in a week you can’t go out and replace them just like that.
“I wish some people would understand that it isn’t that easy to replace players of the ilk that we’ve lost since the end of last season. We’ve lost virtually an entire team of really good footballers.
AFC return to St John’s Park next week for the first time since the August bank holiday, and Carl Abbott’s assistant thinks home comforts after six consecutive away games will lift the mood.
“I think today has been a game too far on the road, we’ve had five or six on the spin now and it does take it out of you because you want to get back at home.
“When you’ve had five or six straight games away from home it’s always hard, especially to come to a place like this. They’re very well supported and once they got themselves in front and sniffed a weakness in us they were always going to be on the front foot.”
