Boss Kev Nottingham was left scratching his head at how his Spalding United Reserves side managed to lose 3-2 at ChromaSport PDFL Division One basement boys Langtoft United Reserves on Saturday.
The visitors started the better of the two teams, moving the ball from side to side, creating a handful of promising openings, despite the state of the pitch. Camped outside Langtoft’s final third, Spalding looked the more likely to opening scoring.
But as has been the way in recent weeks, mistakes once again proved costly. A short back pass from Danny Nichols was intercepted and the hosts went 1-0 up.
Then, for the five minutes that followed, the Tulips switched off and they were punished in the ultimate fashion. It was 2-0 when again they were beaten by a long ball and untracked runner to score.
Unlike last week, when they conceded two goals in quick succession, Spalding rolled up their sleeves and made a fight of it.
They had the ball in the net through Jake Farrell with ten minutes of the half remaining, but it was disallowed for a dubious offside decision.
Farrell also fired over moments after and Daniel Bergin had two good opportunities.
The second half started as the first ended, as Spalding hogged the possession and looked to pull a goal back.
With ten men behind the ball, Langtoft defended gallantly. Matt Rose thought he’d pulled a goal back with a thumping header from the penalty spot from a free kick with 20 minutes to go, only for the linesman to again have his flag up.
Soon after Langtoft extended their lead to three. Caught in possession just inside their own half, Spalding were left two on two and Langtoft took advantage to score.
The Tulips hit back straight from the re-start when young talent Jonny Lockie buried a penalty.
They then made it 3-2 when Jordan Haw side-footed home a Rose cut-back, but couldn’t find a leveller despite sustained late pressure.
Spalding Utd Res: Elderkin, Philips, Haw, Nichols (Newton), Braybrook, Harrison (Britton), Lockie, Rose, Farrell, Bergin (Costa), McGuire (Cannon).
