Skelmersdale United manager Richard Brodie expressed his disappointment as they fell to defeat at home to Witton Albion.
Skem followed up their win over Mossley with an impressive display against table-topping Macclesfield despite being beaten 1-0.
Against Jon Macken’s side, they started off poorly and were made to pay by their opponents. Brodie told Off The Park: “After the Mossley win, we go to Macclesfield – which for me is a free hit – I thought we were absolutely tremendous, losing a game 1-0 to a mistake on the edge of our box and we got punished because we’re playing good players at a club who really should be walking away with the league.
“Three thousand plus fans clapped our lads off which is a credit to how they performed, we then play Witton and I thought we were very very poor first-half.
“We kept giving the ball away and against a better side, we go into the break more than one down, we can’t keep giving the ball, my issue was consistency, to put two performances in like we did against Mossley and Macclesfield then to put a poor half against Witton finding ourselves chasing the game.
“When you come up against an experienced side that know how to defend that lead, they frustrated us, we huffed and puffed, could we have squeezed a draw? Maybe but on reflection, the performance we put in deserved to lose the game.”
Max McCarthy returned to FC United of Manchester leaving a gap at the top of the pitch for Skelmersdale United.
Whilst a new forward remains the focus, Brodie is keen to level out their inconsistency after good performances against Mossley and the Silkmen but seen their showings slip below par.
“It’s still work in progress, we have a lot of new faces, we have a new goalkeeper, two of our back three were new to the system, the team and the lads,” he continued. “We are getting there and there are positive signs, consistency is a problem at this level.
“We are crying out for a centre forward, we lost Max McCarthy back to FC United, I was a number nine so I’m a big believer in you’re only as good as your number nine because if you haven’t got that focal point and it keeps coming back, you’ll find yourself coming under pressure. The game is won in both penalty areas and we haven’t got that potent striker at the moment to win us games.”
Workington are this weekend’s opponents as Skem look to get their revenge on Danny Grainger’s side. The pair met during the early days of Brodie’s tenure with the Blues.
He said: “They’re a very well drilled side, very experienced, a team that’s played together for a long time, I’ve got a lot of time and respect for Danny, it will be tough, it’s a game that will suit us because they like to play football and so do we.
“The game will be a good spectacle for people that want to watch the game, if we can be defensively organised, when we get the chance, we have to take it but we’re looking forward to a tough side against a well-established football club.
“I said to the lads go out and test yourself against, naturally you raise your game and our lads will do that, there’s no pressure on us, we have got ability in the squad and the way we’re training results will come.”
