Lower Breck have recently tasted defeat on more than one occasion, a feat that leaves a bitter taste in their mouth, especially in manager Gary Moore’s.
A disappointing collapse on Saturday saw them handed another defeat away from home, this time to the hands of Prestwich Heys.
The returning Karl Clair suffered a broken collarbone in the match and forced Lower Breck to finish with 10 men as the hosts netted twice more to secure the win.
Coming up for Breck is a run of four home games, three of those in the league. But manager Gary More believes the desire shown in their 2-2 draw with Runcorn Town midweek can be used as a building block as they look to add wins to their slate.
“We weren’t good in the game once again, you take the lead in a game even when you’re not playing well you’ve got to do your jobs on the park front to back, left to right, lads have to show fight and heart but we didn’t see it sadly,” Moore told Off the Park.
“I think if you go back to the start of the season I said we weren’t playing too good right now I think it’s costing us now. We seen a good performance [against Runcorn Town] we just need to back it up. Every game is massive but we’ve got to turn a corner at some points.
“We haven’t been able to put a complete 90 minutes in we’ve started the game fast or slow, same with the second half, a lot of the managers will be the same, it’s hurt us and we’ve been leading some of these games.
“The three games where we’ve gone down to 10 men we’ve been drawing every one of them, we’re still in them but you’ve got to start doing the dirty work when things like that happen.
“You’ve got to have a little more about you, you’ve got to do you the jobs all over the park, the gaps have to get smaller, you can’t let them play round you but sadly a little bit of tiredness has crept in where fitness has been good but tiredness with the amount of games we have played.
“Within five minutes of going down to 10 men they score and it deflates the lads you can see it. We’re playing some good football at times. You’ve got to hold your hands up when you don’t play well, if you don’t play and get beat you have those days but we’ve seen a bit of lack of fight when we’ve got down to 10 men and stuff, little eye-opener.”
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Lower Breck have a wealth of experience in their ranks with Jamie McDonald, Kev McEllin and with the latest addition of Carl Peers from Bootle.
After 10 games, they are four points off the runners-up play-off position and seven off league leaders Macclesfield.
After a disappointing run, their visit to Runcorn saw them take the lead twice but the combination of injuries and a disjointed system meant they were forced to settle for a point.
“Some of the players have won this division, they know what it takes to win this division, they know what it takes to win football matches at this level, our issue is why does it keep happening? I’ll hold my hand I’ve made a couple of mistakes over the last few of weeks, that’s football the lads aren’t robots they’ll make mistakes.
“It’s the silly ones. We’ve got a good group but you need leaders when the going gets tough. You’ve got to make sure you’re still in those [tight] games, I don’t like to say it but I think we’ve given up at times, that’s not a Lower Breck side, somethings got to change.
“[On Wednesday] we seen it, can’t fault the lads at all. We done well, not a great game of football at times, but two teams going at it. We were in the lead coming out in the second half and lost our defender to injury, then we lost Jamie Mac to injury.
“It’s little moments like that, where we need to be strong and we were and they’ve killed us. Runcorn pushed us they got the equaliser, it was anyone’s then. Last 10 minutes we both had moments. It’s something to build off, lads were disappointed but I couldn’t question them, the performance for 90 minutes.
“Saturdays a tough one, one of the toughest days – not that I’ve had – if a team outplays for 90 minutes and beat us 4-0 I’ll take that but it’s the manner of it. It was a total different turnaround, the fight, the desire, everything from front to back.
“I’m more positive than I have been over the last few weeks but the lads know that, you’ve got to take defeats on the chin but it’s the manner of them, our lads are winners so they know when they’re not performing. Hopefully we can kick on, four home games one in the Vase, Saturday-Thursday it’s not going to get any easier.”
