Deeping Rangers 2 Holbeach United 0
Holbeach United saw their huge unbeaten run come to an end on Saturday as Deeping Rangers picked up a 2-0 win – but boss Danny Hussey offered nothing but praise for his side.
Goals in each half from Tom Garrick (45 and 62) gave Rangers the derby spoils at the Haydon Witham Stadium as the Tigers slipped from first to fifth in the Uhlsport UCL Premier Division.
But boss Hussey refused to criticise his team, who hadn’t lost in more than four months prior to the derby defeat.
He said: “To be fair to the lads, going that long unbeaten is amazing. It was always going to end one day.
“Throw in that Deeping really wanted to beat us after we knocked them out of the Lincs Cup and this was always going to be a difficult game for us.
“They are one of the best teams in the league and they took their chances when the came.
“I thought we probably created more than they did, but they punished our mistakes and we didn’t punish them.
“It was a hard day to play football, but I thought the performance was good against one of the best teams in the league.
“Competing with the likes of Deeping has helped push us forward as a team and we remain on track to have a better season than we did last time, which is the goal.
“Our defending could have been better for their goals, but I’m not about to dig them out for that.
“We’ve kept a lot of clean sheets this season and these kind of things can happen every now and then.
“Maybe the unbeaten run put a bit of a target on our backs, too. There’s always the pressure of wanting to keep it going and other teams wanting to beat you.
“We’ll do our best to start a new run.”
Tigers: Drury, Wilson, Fairweather, N Jackson, T Smith, Adams, Tinkler, A Jackson, J Smith (Oliver 77), Ford (Bird 65), Lockie. Not used: Withers.
Attendance: 173.
