No excuses for defeat, says Ardley
NEAL Ardley admitted he felt a “bit let down” after Notts County were beaten 3-2 by Maidenhead United at Meadow Lane.
Notts were missing several firstteam players due to positive tests for Covid-19 but Ardley said that was no excuse for the defeat. “I’m not happy,” he said. “With everything that’s gone on with the rigmarole of what happened with the Covid tests, and the game being on, you feel a bit let down.
“That team was good enough to win a game of football. We scored two goals at home and you expect to win.
“We do our homework on the opposition and they’re a big strong team at set-pieces.
“We made sure the players knew their jobs but as a manager there is nothing more frustrating when a player doesn’t do his job.
“I’ll get the criticism for it but it’s happened twice and it’s left us chasing our tails.
“But we should have been out of sight in the first half.”
Regarding the positive Covid tests, Ardley added: “When we spoke to the doctors, the medical advisors of the National League, of Maidenhead, and our own, we felt that the bubble that was going to be here on the day was negative.
“It meant that if we could field a team to play the game, we should do that rather than just say nope, that’s it, we’ve got a few key players out.
“In future, you could just end up with cancellations left, right and centre and for the integrity of football, you probably need to try and plan for it.
“If you look at the Premier League and Liverpool and teams like that, it doesn’t just stop because they have positive tests. You have to get on with it.
“I think with the Barnet situation, who knows what their call was?
“Maybe they just decided we can’t afford testing so we’re going to put our team into isolation for 10 days to make sure and and therefore call the game off.”