Yates in derby apology to fans
MARK Yates apologised to the 700 Ma c c l e s f i e l d supporters who travelled to Crewe on Saturday and witnessed the Silkmen suffer a comprehensive 3-0 derby defeat.
Macc struggled to counce back from a sluggish start which saw them two goals down by the end of the first half.
And while things improved after the break, manager Yates was far from impressed.
“I’d like to apologise for our first half performance in particular,” he said.
“It wasn’t what we set out to do. I know that we are giving ourselves mountains to climb in games and that’s not what we want to be about. We’ll leave no stone unturned in trying to put this right and find a way of playing that suits the group and makes us tougher to beat.
“We’ve got some good footballers but we are conceding too many soft goals.”
Jordan Bowery proved a thorn in the side of Macc all afternoon and bagged a brace of goals after Charlie Kirk had opened the scoring for the Railwaymen.
It stretched Macc’s winless run of form in League Two to six games, leaving them second bottom of the table with just two points.
“Defensively we weren’t good and we made it hard for ourselves.
“We changed it in the second half and we had a go and we were much better.
“I don’t want to have to keep changing it at half time. I was hoping to get to half time at 1-0 and we had a couple of good chances in the first half but didn’t take them. Our goalkeeper is having to make too many saves.
“They lumped a lot of balls up to Bowery and he won every header, so they were nothing special but they beat us comfortably and credit to them for that.
“We have to look at ourselves and make sure we know what we’re about. We always knew it was going to be a tough start and a tough season for us, but we’ve got the players individually and collec- tively who can do alright for us this season, but not if we don’t compete well enough in defensive areas in particular. It’s a team game and we weren’t good enough in the first half from one to eleven.
“We spoke as a staff afterwards and with the players about what needs to be done. But it’s not about talking. We’ve drawn a line under it now and we’ve had a good chat. Things were said. “Everybody knows that it wasn’t good enough, particularly first half, for a local derby.”