Spalding United manager Matt Easton remains upbeat despite three defeats over Christmas having plunged the Tulips back in to the Evo-Stik East relegation dog fight.
United went into the Christmas period in good form following back-to-back wins, but they suffered three consecutive defeats over the festive period.
New Year’s Day’s 2-1 loss to a Wisbech Town side who began the year in the bottom two followed a 2-1 loss at home to Cleethorpes and a 3-1 defeat at Brighouse on Boxing Day.
It’s left Spalding 15th in the table, sixth from bottom, but just three points off the bottom of the division.
Easton says he was generally happy with their displays, apart from the second half against Wisbech.
“We played alright at Cleethorpes and could have got something from that and we were in the game against Brighouse but they’re a better side than us and towards the top of the table.
“The second half against Wisbech was poor, but in six periods we’ve only been poor once.
“We’ve been creating quite a few chances and been competitive in every game, we just dropped off in the second half against Wisbech.
“We didn’t do enough and it wasn’t good enough.
“They’re a side we should be beating and we got beat ourselves.”
In the Wisbech game the Tulips were left unhappy that a stamp on the head of their goal scorer Leon Mettam went unpunished.
“My players said the linesman saw it but the referee didn’t want to hear, which is very disappointing,”
Easton continued. “But 11v11 we should be good enough to win games and we have to be better than we were.”
Spalding are without a game this weekend but is it a good time for a mini-break?
“Probably, yeah,” Easton answers. “All the teams at the bottom are playing each other this weekend so we’ll know where we are ahead of some tough fixtures in January.
“Games against promotion chasing Pontefract and Sheffield will not be easy but we’ve got two weeks to work on the training pitch and get a bit more out of the players.”
