Manager Paul Simpson spoke to us after the defeat against Cheltenham at Brunton Park.
“In games like that the first goal is so important, any goal is big,” he said. “We can’t legislate for that type of mistake, it’s an incredible mistake, but the performance right through was poor. We deserved to be booed off today because we were poor all round.
“They had more desire to get on the end of things and they were competing. They have a really simple game plan, they stick it in behind you and turn you then they compete for things and pick up second balls. We haven’t done any of those things and those are the basics of any game of football, whatever level you play at.
“They’ve been better than us and we got exactly what we deserved. Taking the mistake out of it, we got what we deserved today. We just weren’t good enough.”
“We put deliveries in the box, particularly from set plays, but we didn’t get on the end of them,” he continued. “We had balls inside their six-yard box, but they were getting first contact on it. We got into areas in the first half where we were shooting from 30 yards out when we had the wind against us.
“The overall decision making was so poor, and the big disappointment is that we had a decent performance against Northampton last week but the level of performance today has gone way below the standard of League One and of what we expect from this group. That’s a huge disappointment.
“They held onto the lead and they had a couple of other half chances in the first half as well. The goal is a shocking goal to give away, it really is. I’m sick of looking at mistakes, I’m tired of it. We’re making mistake after mistake and gifting goals away. It would be like a horror reel if we were to look at all of the goals we’ve conceded this season. I don’t know how many we have gifted to the opposition.
“We’re just not doing enough to pick up results and because of that we absolutely deserve to be second bottom at the moment.”
The manager praised the supporters after over 7,500 home fans were at Brunton Park: “The fans were magnificent but we’ve let them down today, it’s as simple as that. That level of performance is nowhere near it.
“I could hear them shouting for us to get hold of the ball and to compete, but that should be a given. That shouldn’t be something that anybody should be asking players to do. Today we haven’t done it all over the pitch.
“We’ve made individual mistakes and been sloppy in possession. Even the boys we put on as subs weren’t able to give us a rection or add any life to the performance. That is a huge disappointment.
“Today was a game that we desperately wanted to win, and let’s be honest, we desperately needed to win it today as well. We’re at home. To get over 7,000 at home at this time of year is absolutely fantastic and the supporters deserve a hell of a lot of credit today. Unfortunately we as a group don’t deserve any credit. We need to wake up very very quickly.”