A fourth consecutive away defeat left Spalding United manager Jimmy Dean urging his players to take the chance he was offering them or find themselves out of the team once he gets the squad back up to full strength.
A spate of injuries has left the Tulips down on numbers, with only five substitutes named for Saturday’s 2-1 National League North defeat at AFC Telford United.
“At the minute these boys in the team are custodians of the shirt,” said Dean, after seeing his side squander an early lead.
“They won’t be if they keep playing like that and that’s not my problem or my fault. I can only give them opportunities, it’s up to them if they want to take them.”
Spalding needed only three minutes to take the lead in Shropshire when a long throw was flicked on and Dion Sembie-Ferris hooked the ball into the net over his shoulder.
The lead lasted less than 15 minutes though, with Louis Moult converting a cross from point-blank range.
Telford went ahead six minutes before the break when Oliver Cawthorne escaped two defenders to get on the end of a flicked-on free-kick to score.
Both teams created chances after the break but were unable to add to the scoreline, despite Tulips goalkeeper Peter Crook being thrown into late action as a makeshift centre forward as his team threw everyone forward to try to grab an equaliser.
Dean was left frustrated by his team’s performance and said: “We got the early goal, which was a soft one from Telford’s point of view, but we’ll take it.
“However, Telford had control after that and we weren’t good enough.
“When we aren’t playing well we have to make it hard for our opponents; be compact and hard to beat, but we weren’t.
“Their equaliser was a soft one to concede and the second was finished well but we shouldn’t have been two-on-two on a set-piece.
“We were a couple of yards of it after that and we’ve got to be better than that. Good players were hiding and we were playing backwards and sideways and not forcing the pattern. We have some very talented footballers in the front four but they weren’t offered enough when we had possession.
“The second half was more 50-50 and we showed more ambition. We were much better and asked a lot of questions and should have scored a couple of goals.
“But we were chasing the game and needed more conviction.
“We could have had something but there were big parts when we weren’t good enough and we have to look hard at ourselves.”
Spalding take a break from league action on Saturday with a tricky FA Trophy tie at Isthmian League Premier Division side Enfield Town. The Londoners are pushing hard for promotion after suffering relegation from National League South last season.
Tulips: Crook, Kelly, Moore, Johnson (Fox), Bendle (Abbey), Barton (Fowkes), Jarvis, Byrne (Sani), Straughan-Brown, Sembie-Ferris, Nyahwema (Vaughan).
Attendance: 1,056.
☐ Rohan Vaughan has returned to Harrogate Town after the end of his loan, while winger Zaid Betteka has left the Tulips by mutual consent to pursue opportunities closer to his home. He joined Spalding in August after being released by Birmingham City.
