There were more questions than answers for Tulips manager Jimmy Dean after Saturday’s 2-1 Southern League Premier Central defeat at Leiston.
Spalding’s trek to the Suffolk coast left Dean fuming after seeing his team outplayed and outfought.
“We were second best and got beaten by a better side” he said. “We were off it in the first half and they beat us up. They looked like they had more energy than us and were better than us.
“They wanted it more than us and that’s the first time since I’ve had this side together that I’ve said that.
“Even when we’ve not won games and lost them, I’ve still felt that we were the better side but Leiston were far superior to us.
“We huffed and puffed in the second half but there was no quality and I wasn’t happy at all. We did try in the second half but that just showed that we weren’t trying in the first half.”
An entertaining game was settled in the first half, thanks to Jamar Loza. He opened the scoring after 18 minutes and then, when his 35th-minute shot came back off a post, George Quantrell was first to react to fire in the second.
They had the bulk of the first-half play but the Tulips were still in the game and did make a fist of things after the break.
They pulled one back when Sam Cartwright headed in Kieron Freeman’s 56th-minute corner and dominated possession but struggled to create clear chances.
As the half went on, they started to leave gaps at the back and were always vulnerable to the counter-attack, with Leiston hitting the woodwork three times.
Dean said his team had been able to play well for large parts of recent games to overwhelm their opponents but that had been the reverse at Victory Road Stadium.
“We’ve been playing for 45-60 minutes at full tilt in most games and that’s been enough to beat most sides but we were miles away from where we needed to be today.
“We were outfought physically and outfought mentally and had our heels in the ground for second balls.”
Despite all that, Dean felt both the home goals were preventable.
“Chappers (goalkeeper Aaron Chapman) had to save the first one, it was a simple save. For the second goal, we’ve got a six-foot-three centre half (Sam Cartwright) who needed to be aggressive and win the first contact. It was absolutely frustrating and we have got a lot of work to do.”
It was not all gloom for Dean thought as he added: “The fans were the only positive. They were here in numbers to support us but we let them down. We’ve got to be better than that; all our games now are big games.”
Tulips (at Leiston): Chapman, Walker, Fox, Moore, Cartwright, Lawlor, Sembie-Ferris (Sherif), Freeman, Cybulski, Sano-Sani (Clifton), Law (Chettle). Subs: Johnson, Leshabela.
Attendance: 204.
