Cooper says ‘cheap goals’ gave Windsor a mountain to climb at The Gore

Windsor boss Mark Cooper (right) says his side gave themselves a mountain to climb after conceding cheap goals in Saturday's 2-1 defeat to Burnham.

The Royalists boss had hoped the return of key players from injury would see the side climbing the table, however, in recent weeks the opposite has been true, and Saturday's narrow loss saw them fall to ninth in the table.

It was also their third successive league loss, and the side hasn't tasted victory since their 3-1 win over Spelthorne Sports back on November 20.

Windsor played well for long periods of the second half, after coming off trailing following an even further period. They levelled through Danny Horscroft, but in pushing for a winner left themselves open to the counter and Leo Decabo's winner 10 minutes from time was well-executed.

Counties Premier Division North.

“We have spoken all season about giving cheap goals away and I felt we did that again towards the end of the first half on Saturday,” said Cooper.

“If you don’t play too well in the first half, if you don’t give the opposition anything, and you come in at 0-0 then that’s fine. You can build on it, change things, and then look to push on and win the game in the second half. But we always seem to give ourselves a mountain to climb by giving away goals so cheaply.

“In the second half, we were good and very offensive. We had a lot of possession, a lot of chances and when we eventually equalised, we wanted to go on and win the game. But, with that came a counterattack and a well-executed goal to hand them the points.

“We are going into these games wanting to win them, not just draw them. They (Burnham) are a team in and around where we are in the league, and I think we should be looking to win those games. Last week, we set up to get a share of the points, this week we wanted to win the game.

“Sometimes, football can be very harsh, and we all felt that on Saturday.”

Cooper also felt the Royalists had grounds for a penalty kick when Luke Appleton appeared to be fouled by Tautis Poniskaitus.

“Luke has hit the bar, goes to head in the rebound, and then gets kicked in the face. Anywhere else on the pitch, that’s a free kick,” said Cooper.