Paul McNally believes a poor 15-minute period in the first-half proved costly for City of Liverpool against Prescot Cables.
The Purps tasted derby defeat as Kyle Sambor and John Murphy put the hosts in front at the break.
McNally rang the changed during the interval which saw Max Allen, Xenon Bahula and Jawad Jebrin enter the fray. Within minutes of the restart, Bahula halved the deficit as he expertly found the bottom corner.
City of Liverpool were not shy of chances in the first and second-half but it was the final 45, where they were chasing, that brought a catalogue of chances that didn’t nestle in the back of the net.
Bahula went close with a fizzing effort, Mitchley failed to convert from six yards before goalkeeper Calvin Hare saw his free header go the wrong side of the post in the last act of the fiercely competitive encounter.
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McNally described the feeling at full-time as “disappointment” as their showing in the first-half handed them an uphill task.
“The first half has undone us, the second half I think I can remember two chances they had. We had a 15-minute spell in the first-half where we conceded two and looked a mess at times,” he told Off The Park.
“We could’ve been 1-0 up by the time they scored two but they scored and were in the ascendancy. We regrouped at half-time, made three substitutions and changed the system, we were all over them but haven’t taken our chances.
“We were deflated at half-time, how we were behind I don’t know. Besides that spell, we wasn’t getting overran, we were the better team and could’ve been 1-0 up, it transpired they scored the two goals out of nothing.
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“The second goal, I don’t know how it went in whether it took a bobble, it’s gone in and in the second half, we created enough chances to win two games.
“I honestly believe if we got the second earlier we might’ve went on to win it but we’ve got to score the second. We haven’t, they’ve defended for their lives, seven bodies behind the ball and every time it dropped to them.
“We’re a good team but if good teams don’t score they become bad teams. And if they don’t keep clean sheets, it’s the same. We come here last year, it was a similar game but we had more go, we were attacking and looked better. But we’ve got to fit cut errors out and score.”
[Featured Image: City of Liverpool]
