Holbeach United 1
Rothwell Corinthians 2
Boss Tom Roberts lamented a “poor performance” as his Holbeach United side slipped to a disappointing 2-1 defeat against Rothwell Corinthians on Saturday.
It was the Tigers’ first ChromaSport UCL Premier Division outing since December 28 – and their hopes of lifting the title suffered something of a blow at Carter’s Park.
It took just 20 seconds for Andy White to open the scoring for mid-table Rothwell on what was his first start of the season.
The same player doubled the lead on the hour and, although Tom Gosling pulled one back for Holbeach four minutes later, they couldn’t find an equaliser.
To make matters worse, Rothwell’s Kalon Peniasko was sent off late on for a tackle that left Holbeach’s Aaron Eyett facing up to eight weeks out with an ankle injury.
Roberts admitted that Eyett was lucky not to break his ankle – and felt the incident was the cherry on top of a bad day at the office.
“It was just a poor performance,” said the player/boss. “There was no quality in the game whatsoever.
“We gave away two very simple goals, which is very frustrating. Our defence has been our strongest point so far this season.
“There’s nothing more to say really, it was just lacklustre from us – I can offer no excuses.
“Aaron’s injury topped it all off. If you look at the tackle, I don’t quite know how he didn’t break his ankle.”
The Tigers made the worst possible start when White drilled a clinical angled drive past Ricky Drury from the first attack of the game.
Rothwell then capitalised on a very rare Stacy Cartwright error to double their lead through dangerman White.
Gosling’s back-post finish raised hopes of a comeback, but there was a sting in the tail with Eyett suffering that nasty late injury.
Tigers: Drury, Worthington (Warfield 46), Stevens, N Jackson, Cartwright, Thomas, Pinner (Smith 46), Eyett (Dougill 74), Gale, Gosling, Tidswell. Not used: Ward, A Jackson.
Attendance: 139
