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Herne Bay picked up more injuries as they slipped to a fourth straight defeat on Tuesday night but the manager’s not making excuses.
Experienced boss Steve Lovell was brutally honest in his assessment of their midweek Isthmian South East performance at Broadbridge Heath - which ended in a 3-0 defeat - and knows they need to work hard and stick together to turn things around.
Lovell said: “We were down to bare bones anyway and then you get three injuries, two in the first 20-odd minutes and it doesn’t help, but it still doesn’t take away the fact that you lose the game 3-0.
“There’s other games where we’ve lost and I’ve said we didn’t deserve it. But on Tuesday night, I’ve got to admit that we were hopeless. We were rubbish - even before the injuries.
“We couldn’t pass it five yards, the pitch was awful, it’s bobbly, these grass pitches in the winter are not the best at this level but you’ve got to deal with it.
“We were well beaten because of the way that we played, not anything that they did. Obviously, it helps if you keep everybody on the pitch and don’t have to bring youngsters on, really young players. It might have been different and in the second half, we started much better.
“I let a few of them know some home truths at half-time and, to be fair, they came out second half and started well. We were on top and then they got their second goal straight from our corner.
“They break up the other end and score. That’s not right. It’s just one of them games that you forget about and move on.”
Lovell’s side are away to play-off chasing Burgess Hill this Saturday and then travel to Deal Town on Boxing Day.
He said: “We’re playing two good sides but we’ve played well against the better sides this year.
“We’ve got a couple of boys that are hopefully going to be back for Saturday. That will give us a little bit of a boost.
“We’ll train (tonight) Thursday and we’ll see where we are. The squad is quite dilapidated at the moment and we’re just hoping the boys that got injured last night (Tuesday) are going to be okay for Saturday. We’ll have to wait and see.”
The Broadbridge Heath defeat followed a 2-1 home loss to East Grinstead on Saturday. Bay were two down at the break and got a goal back late on through Michael Salako.
It’s a tough spell for the manager but Lovell added: “It happens to the best of us, though, doesn’t it? Look at Man City! Like he (Pep Guardiola) said, it’s the managers who’ve got to sort it out. You’ve got to sort it out yourself.
“You try your best with players. I think he’s got a little bit better squad than I have but it’s the same principles. I need to sort it out. It doesn’t matter what you’ve got. You’ve got to try your best and that’s all you can do.
“We’ll go again on Saturday and hopefully we’ll put in a performance and get something.
Isthmian South East Table
“All you can do is roll your sleeves up, keep working hard and keep trying to find solutions to the problems but we’re all in it together.
“We’ve been a good squad this year. We started the season really well and then the injuries have taken their toll and suspensions, and then we go on this bad run. The only way out of this bad run is to work hard.
“I’m saying to the players they’ve got to be a little bit more brave, they’ve got to grow up. It’s up to them. It’s a long way to go yet and it’s going to be a battle for us this year.
“We started the season really well but people weren’t making mistakes. They weren’t giving goals away. They weren’t getting sent off. They weren’t doing stupid things. That’s what’s happening.
“On Saturday, they (East Grinstead) scored two unbelievable goals, worldies that no one will ever score again and apart from that, they didn’t do anything in the game. We lose it 2-1.
“It is there [in the squad] but it’s the consistency and people not making silly mistakes. At this level it happens, but it seems to be happening more with us than anybody else and we can’t let that happen.”
