Hopes of a third consecutive sheet for the new regime of manager Jimmy Dean were dashed when AFC Sudbury scored three times in the closing stages of Saturday’s Southern League Premier Central match at the Sir Halley Stewart Field.
Dean’s first league match in charge followed a 0-0 and 1-0 extra-time FA Cup defeat of Matlock Town but a lack of success in front of goal cost his team dearly.
Lamine Sherif grazed the bar in the first half and Joseph Nyahwema hit a post after the break before Nathan Stainfield’s header was cleared off the line.
It was the Tulips’ fifth straight league defeat and Dean said: “We didn’t take our chances. I thought for the majority of that game we were good and 3-0 was extremely unfair.
“We’re not looking for excuses. We’re looking for opportunities to make this better. We’ll get there. I’ve no doubt in my mind. We’ll get there. We’ve just got to stick to our beliefs and keep doing what we’re doing.”
The Suffolk side took the lead after 73 minutes with a header from a free-kick and doubled their advantage three minutes later when a deflected shot left Tony Breeden wrong-footed.
A stoppage time third goal just rubbed salt in the home wounds.
“For the first 70 minutes we looked a good side,” said Dean. “Everything was good, we were on top of our game. We could have had one or two goals in the first half and I thought in the first half of the second half we were still the more dominant.
“We probably had the better chances. We hit the post and had one cleared off the line and then missed a one-on-one.
“If any of those had gone in, it would have changed the whole perspective of the game but the goal didn’t come.”
It left Spalding second bottom of the table, looking to bring home some reward from Tuesday’s trip to fellow strugglers Harborough Town.
Tulips: Breeden, Ezewele, Warburton (Draper), Cartwright, Walker, Barker (Stainfield), Ndukwu (Winters), Sherif, Graham (Bennett), Ngandu, Nyahwema.
Sub: Dawes.
