Skelmersdale United manager Richard Brodie feels injuries and ongoing niggles have played its part in their recent struggles.
Runcorn Linnets handed Skem their second successive defeat after a run of straight wins. 1874 Northwich edged out the Blues at the Community Ground on Saturday.
The threat of relegation has not subsided, however, as they continue to be threatened to be sucked in as teams around pick up points.
They face Glossop North End this weekend and a win for the Hillmen could see them leapfrog Brodie’s side.
Assessing their issues, Brodie said speaking to Off The Park: “Performance-wise I thought Trafford was excellent again, away from home we’ve been great it’s just the thing we’ve got at home at the minute.
“We can’t seem to bring home what we take when we’re away. I know it’s not our home, it’s Burscough’s, whether that’s a factor I don’t know, whether astro turf’s a factor I don’t know, can’t put our finger on what’s wrong at home.
“Having said that, we got beat by Northwich, we conceded a poor goal and missed three guilt-edged chances so it’s a recipe for disaster when you’re conceding poor goals and not conceding at the other end. We went to a Linnets who were on a poor run of form, I don’t care what anybody says they’re on a poor run but they’re a good side, a real good side.
“Where we’re at at the minute, we’re down to the absolute bare bones, we’ve got that many injuries, knocks, tired legs because we haven’t got the resources to go and replace and rotate like the bigger clubs have – and it’s shown.
“We look leggy, lethargic and that’s not through lack of the effort, we’ve brought a lot of new players in, a lot of players who haven’t had a good pre-season, injured, not played a lot of football and it’s shown in recent performances.
“It can’t define the season, since I’ve been in charge, it’s the first time we’ve had back-to-back Tuesday games and it’s not an excuse, when you’re consistently playing 90 minutes and not had a good pre-season, it comes back and bites you on the arse a bit,” he added discussing the ongoing issues hampering their campaign.
“It’s a learning curve for me, at the moment we’ve been doing zoom calls with the lads and a 12-minute stretching session. We need to be at the best we can come Saturday, got a huge game away at Glossop then against Rammy. We’re working at the moment, we have to do the best we can, the most important thing is three o’clock on Saturday.
“I don’t want to speak too soon, we’ve been okay going away where we’ve had to roll our sleeves up and I spoke about the side of us that I hadn’t seen against Clitheroe, we’ve now got that side to us. Regardless of the results, spirit is high, we’re punching above our weight massively but we are heading in the right direction, we have to be ready Saturday.
“Glossop will be difficult and you look at the results around you, since we beat Clitheroe they drew with Macclesfield and beat Bootle 4-0, the league’s up and down at the moment. People are catching up after the postponements and it’s catching up with other teams as well.”
Two points separate the two sides going into this weekend’s meeting. Away form for Skem has been positive as they travel to Glossop who have won two of their last five matches at the Arthur Goldthorpe Stadium.
“We have to go there and be as resolute as we have been away from home, I don’t think many people would go to Clitheroe, Kidsgrove and Trafford and pick up nine points but that’s gone. We have to apply ourselves like we did for those games against Glossop.
“They’ll want to overtake us so it’s up to us to keep that. There’s no hiding place, we’ve got 12 games left and we have to pick up as many points as we can.”
[Featured image: Gordon Johnson]
