Brent so sorry for brave Boro

SHELDAN KEAY

BACUP Borough manager Brent Peters says he has sympathy with his players after their loss at Abbey Hulton United.

Peters’ men suffered a 4-1 defeat in the game, but the Bacup boss thought the scoreline didn’t reflect the game.

“I feel really sorry for our boys, once again they have played very well especially in the first half,” he said.

“They have worked hard and really did have the home side on the back foot for the majority of the first half, but the home side’s goalkeeper was equal to everything we threw at him, so he must be credited for his performance.

“I only knew about my goalkeeper’s shoulder problem minutes prior to kick-off when he returned to the changing rooms early from his pre-match warm up.

“To be honest it did not come across to me that it would restrict Josh to the point that it did restrict him, and equally I do not think Josh himself felt it would restrict him as much as it did.

“Josh is a very good honest reliable goalkeeper, who never gave me any indication of not being able to take on his responsibilities, as when attempting to go for a ball, his back went into spasm.

“Make no mistake every goal we conceded were basically food and drink for all keepers, and if Josh was not struggling he would have dealt with those situations with ease. The issue now is how long Josh will be out.

“I am not taking anything away from Abbey Hulton but the circumstances we found ourselves in meant it was like we did not have a keeper between the sticks, so credit to our hosts they capitalised on our misfortune but my boys did not deserve what unfolded.

“Their second goal just killed us in what was a basic take. I moved Joshua Walne into an attacking midfield role with the instruction he had to be the third man runner supporting the attacks, and I thought in the first half Josh was outstanding and was involved in a lot of our positive moves.

“We had leading scorer Wayne Morrison on the bench, so if we were chasing the game it was always going to happen that I would change the shape and would be taking off a midfield player and going with three strikers. “Once I did that, I felt the runs from our attacking midfield player had stopped, even though this particular change I have done in most games.

“Wayne Morrison and Matty Barlow are very similar players, so I could only start with one of them to compliment Anthony Hall who was a real threat. The fact Wayne Morrison missed training on Thursday and Matty Barlow trained meant that Matty got the nod, and my decision was justified as in the first half the quality of play between Matty Barlow, Anthony Hall and Josh Walne was good on the eye.

“Performances are good, we are constantly creating chances which is good, but we must improve our conversion rate of chances into goals and equally we must stop conceding the type of goals we are conceding, irrespective of the fact my keeper was injured.

“There really was no excuse for their opening goal which was one long straight ball, so that is very poor indeed, but on the positive side of things, we are not far away. There are more good than bad coming from us, we just need a break.”

Bacup will now hope to return to winning ways this weekend when they welcome New Mills.