Burscough manager Paul Bowes has called for his lads to dig deep after they were dealt their third straight defeat.
Vauxhall Motos ran out 2-0 winners continuing the misery for the start to Linnets’ year after their 4-1 defeat to Skelmersdale United.
Bowes hopes the recent run of losses can spark a new sense of desire but felt Mick McGraa’s side deserved to leave West Lancashire with the points.
“I thought Vauxhall’s got a well-deserved win, we were nowhere near good enough on the day, can’t complain,” he told Off The Park.
“I was fuming to be honest, with our lads. They never got out of first gear, they were second to every ball, we could string two or three passes together, we were making stupid mistakes that we don’t normally make, it was a bad day at the office for everyone.
“It should give them a new sense of desire [recent defeats] but I half hope it has hurt their pride, hope they do realise they’ve came back down to earth with a bump, they’re not unbeatable and teams can come to them and beat them.
“Don’t get me wrong, losing Dec [Daniels] and Josh [Quarless] this season are big losses but we should still have enough to be beating teams in the bottom half of the table and it’s only them who can do it at the end of the day.
“If we defended, yeah [the goals could be avoided]. They cut us open, that shouldn’t happen, we were too open across the pitch, there was no intensity from us.
“When we were going forward, I think George Lomax tried to control the ball with his neck more than his feet the way lads were hitting it to him, it was just a bad day.
“The lads have to dig deep, work hard, prove that they’re a top-five side. We don’t want the season to whittle out into absolutely nothing, finishing mid-table, we want to make the top five.
“The target was top 10 when we took over, but as a squad, we set ourselves top five and it’s still achievable, more than achievable but dropping nine points in three games makes it a bit harder, we’ve got to put the effort in over the last 12 games.”
