‘We’ve got good support - we let them down’
Fareham Town boss Pete Stiles wants to see a marked improvement from his players as they aim to mount a charge up the Wessex League Premier Division table between now and the end of the season.
Stiles admitted his squad 'let down their supporters' after being dumped out of the Portsmouth Senior Cup at the quarter-final stage in midweek.
The Reds lost on penalties to two-divisions below Hampshire Premier League outfit Locks Heath at Cams Alders to compound a 'bad, bad week'.
Fareham, who let a two-goal lead slip to draw 2-2 in their Wessex League Premier trip to Bournemouth last weekend, find themselves down in 12th spot in the table and Stiles conceded his troops have 'underachieved' so far this season - already suffering 10 defeats in their 24 league outings to date.
But the Reds boss is targeting a positive result at Alton tomorrow to spark a charge up the standings with 16 league games left to play.
Stiles assessed: ‘I know
I’ve got good players there and we’ve just totally underachieved (this season).
‘I think that’s certainly not helped (injuries this season), but we’re just not doing it at the moment, we’ve got to be better.
‘There are players who are a lot better than what they showed (against Locks Heath), we’ve just got to get better because we’ve got a good following, good support and we really let them down (against Locks Heath).
‘We’ve got a difficult one at Alton on a 3G on Saturday which is really going to be a difficult game, but these are games we’ve got to go and get something now.
‘We’ve had the disappointment of the draw at Bournemouth and to go out of the cup like we did it’s just a bad, bad week for us.
‘I put the 11 and the 16 (match-day squad) out there so I’ve got to burden that responsibility, but I’ve got to find out why they’re not performing.
‘I’m looking at players and thinking, ‘you’re much better than that,’ but they’re just not doing it.’