Skipper Nathan Stainfield has called on his Spalding United team-mates to emulate the work-rate and desire shown by conquerers Shaw Lane Aquaforce on Tuesday night.
The central defender, who was man-of-the-match in the Tulips’ 3-0 loss (click here to read the report) , admits the title hopefuls showed amazing intensity at the Sir Halley Stewart Playing Field.
Although not worried by Spalding’s recent dip in form – they’ve now lost four of their last six in all competitions – Stainfield admits he and his team-mates aren’t playing as a team at present.
But he feels that there were plenty of positives from the second-half showing on Tuesday and is hopeful of turning things around ahead of Saturday’s visit of Daventry Town (3pm).
“There’s evidence of us coming together,” said the talismanic defender. “But we’re just a bit disjointed as a team at the moment.
“We’re just not playing as a team. We’ve got good individual players, but at the moment the difference between winning and losing is doing things in the right manner.
“Right now, we’re just not approaching things in the right way.
“We’ve got to come together as a team and work things out.
“We can take positives from the second half, I thought it was pretty good for us. We looked a lot better and perhaps could have got something out of it.
“The first 20 minutes looked good. We looked like we were at it, but unfortunately we – as we have been lately – were our own worst enemy.
“The first goal came straight through us again and it’s our own mistake.
“We’ll cut them out, I’m sure of it. But until we scrap as a team, we won’t start beating teams like that.
“They worked so hard and are a good team that you’d expect to be up there. But, first and foremost, they do the first part well and hunt you down in twos and threes.
“They put you under a lot of pressure and they deserved their win. If they play with that sort of intensity all season, they’re going to win a lot of football games.
“I don’t think a lot has to change for us to turn the corner. We just have to cut out the mistakes.
“If we can play with the sort of intensity we showed during the second half, we’ll pick up a lot of points. I’m not worried.”
