Northampton Spencer 3
Holbeach United 2
Fuming boss Tom Roberts couldn’t hide his disappointment after seeing his Holbeach United side beaten 3-2 at ChromaSport UCL Premier Division strugglers Northampton Spencer on Saturday.
The Tigers player/boss has admitted that he “almost exploded” with anger after seeing three “basic individual errors” gift the home side all three points at Kingsthorpe Mill.
The title-chasing Tigers fell behind on ten minutes when Ryan Dove netted for a Spencer side that hadn’t played since January 2 due to postponements.
Jake Clitheroe levelled for Holbeach on 25 minutes, but parity only lasted eight minutes thanks to a Luke Stones strike.
Holbeach, who saw Josh Ford miss two great chances in the first half, then rattled the woodwork on three occasions after the break and saw an Andrew Tidswell free kick expertly saved before Ryan Ansell made it 3-1 ten minutes from time.
Impressive sub Sean Coughlan pulled one back on 88 minutes with his first Tigers goal, but there was to be no rescue act.
The loss leaves Roberts’ side 13 points behind leaders Kempston Rovers with two games in hand – and the player/boss had some harsh words for his side.
“You can’t imagine how angry I was on Saturday,” barked the Tigers chief. “I almost exploded with rage.
“All three of their goals were preventable. We just made basic individual errors – it was very, very sloppy from us.
“At the other end we missed so many chances too. We honestly should have been well out of sight by half time.
“But the most worrying thing was that we looked like a completely new team. That’s an absolutely unacceptable thing to see mid-February– we looked like strangers.
“This team has been together all season and has bags of ability.
“But we didn’t earn the right to play. You’d expect our quality to shine through, but we didn’t work hard enough. Credit to Spencer, they worked very hard despite not having played for five weeks.
“We need to be winning this kind of game if we want to be in the title picture.”
The defeat was Holbeach’s fifth in the league this season.
No side has won the UCL having lost more than four times since S&L Corby back in 2009.
Tigers: Drury, Worthington (Coughlan), Gale, Smith, Warfield, Ward, Thomas, Tidswell, Ford, Clitheroe, Acer. Not used: Dougill, Platt, Roberts.
Attendance: 38.
