Lower Breck manager Gary Moore admitted it wasn’t his side’s day after they were beaten 1-0 away to Prestwich Heys on Boxing Day.
The Breck ended the calendar year with a defeat as Kai Haigh’s first-half strike proved to be the difference.
Jamie Menagh’s penalty rocketed off the crossbar just minutes later as the hosts went on to claim the three points.
“You go to win any game even though Boxing Day has its issues that you have to contend with but it wasn’t the greatest game,” he told Off The Park.
“Both teams had a go but both goalkeepers didn’t make a save, that’s fact, sadly for us it was one error in our box and the other end where we’ve missed a penalty but it happens.
“I’m used to playing OB’s sides which were in your face but they weren’t their usual side, they had players missing themselves, suspended, but the opportunity was there.
“In the first-half, we were too quick to release the ball in the final third but once Pepper, JJ and Menagh clicked, the triangle they were playing, they were tough to get a grip of. But we didn’t capitalise, we had a good 15, 20 minute spell but for that we didn’t test the goalkeeper and it was all done outside the 18 box or the pass eluded us, we looked a threat in the last 15 but there was nothing on the end of it.”
Menagh’s penalty miss proved costly for Breck in their visit to Manchester but Moore felt the spot-kick ‘summed up their day’.
He added: “He’s got a good record, Jamie, so you always expect him to score, he’s absolutely cracked the bar, the ‘keepers guessed the right way but he had no chance with the power of it but it’s one of those things, it’s flew off the bar.
“It does sum the day up, I said after the game one goal would’ve won it game, it was just a game of no chances whatsoever, you can say cancelled each other out but there was good play in there.
“Adam Pepper was quality in the centre of the park, JJ was electric for the first 45 especially but both teams were just lacking that spark, they got the important first goal and it’s disappointing for us because we had the opportunity to roll it back to the ‘keeper and clear it but it’s gone straight to their player in the 18-yard box.
“A soft goal, disappointed not to get back in it with the pen but it was just a game of little chances. I can’t give lads too much grief, Boxing Day a tough game, the dressing room at half-time, full-time is like a doctors surgery, everyone is coughing their guts up then we have four or five missing, we drafted in a few of the 18s again, we had to draw on a couple of the kids but no excuses, we’ve been beaten on the day, it’s a tough day to play football on Boxing Day for a whole host of reasons.”
