Bootle manager Steve McNulty remains defiant that they will bounce back to winning ways.
The Bucks couldn’t break down nine-man Kidsgrove Athletic last weekend as Ben Hodkinson’s late effort wasn’t enough to cancel out two penalties for the hosts.
As a result, it added a fourth straight defeat for Bootle. Following the loss, McNulty was left frustrated after mistakes proved costly once more.
He told Off The Park: “I don’t think there was much in the game, two penalties, two bad errors for the penalties, poor defending. They went down to 10 men, we were 1-0 down at half-time, they go two up and go to nine men, we just struggled to break them down.
“Just not clinical in front of goal, we had a couple of chances which we could’ve took, Ben gets one back but it was too little too late really.
“We have to go again, dust ourselves down and go again. I don’t think our goalkeeper had a save to make all game but I think it’s been the story of the last couple of weeks, we’re creating chances, not taking them and making mistakes and we’re getting punished for them.
“We’re not taking our chances, we work all week in training on patterns of play and stuff like that but you look at the goals we’re conceding, they’re errors, they’re things you can’t coach.
“People are making mistakes and we’re being punished for them, people making mistakes is part and parcel of football, we need to knock the individual errors on the head and keep going.
“It’d be nice to go ahead in the game, give us something to hold on to and relax the lads more because when you’re not winning football matches, confidence dips a bit, I think you can see that so it’s important we pick them up on Saturday and go again.”
Despite their recent run, McNulty is adamant that their fortunes will turn around. He added: “We’ve got to stay positive, I know things are going to turn around, we’ve got a plan in place that we want to stick to and where we want to get to – nothing changes.
“I think with a few additions that will strengthen us, I think we will be alright, it’s just a matter of sticking in there and we’ll get it right.”
This week marked the arrival of four new faces through the door at Vesty Road with goalkeeper Sam Ashton leaving. The Bucks welcomed Wyll Stanway, Ben Roberts as well as Radcliffe duo Nivaldo and Ben Rydel who arrived on loan.
On the possibility of arrivals, McNulty said: ‘We could have a couple done before the weekend but it’s tough. I keep saying it, I can sign as many players as I want but they’ve got to be the right kind of player and the player that’s going take us on to the next level.
“They’re hard to get ahold of and take some convincing but we’ve got our targets, we’ll keep working on them, it’s just taking longer than I thought.”
Hanley Town are the visitors for Bootle this weekend who enjoyed their first win under new manager Ryan Shotton in their 2-1 win on Tuesday.
McNulty insists his side will be “all guns blazing”, he added: “It’s going to be another tough game but we need to pick the lads up, confidence is a bit low in camp at the minute but we’ll get that right, we’ll be all guns blazing come Saturday.
“We had them watched against Kidsgrove, they won 2-1, we’ll sit down, have a chat about things and see how we approach it but we’ll go into it full of confidence.
|We’ve had a go at changing shape and against Newcastle Town, I thought it worked a little bit, we had two up top.
“That’s something we have been talking about and looking to do, try and get two players up top to give us some attacking threat, we’ve been playing with two wide men and three up top but I don’t think the wide-men have been giving us what we need.
“We’ll try get a couple of forwards in and go two up top and try take the game to them, we’re at home and maybe create a few more chances that way.”
