“Disgusted” was the immediate comment made by Welling United manager Jamie Coyle following his team’s meek 2-1 F.A. Cup exit at home to Bostick North league team Haringey Borough.
“I just thought that in terms of character, body language and and commitment that we got from some of the players, today was disgusting.” he said. “We had all the reports and we went through it on Thursday (at training). There’s no excuses. You can’t carry four or five players at any level.”
“It’s been an issue recently where we were lacking a little bit of craft in the final third in terms of breaking teams down.” Coyle continued. “It happened on Tuesday night (against Whitehawk) and we nicked a set piece and kind of got through the game but it’s happened in the last couple of weeks.
“It’s something we’ve got to look at because teams will defend deep against us and we’ve got to have the quality and the ability and the confidence to break team’s down. It’s just not happening at the moment.”
He added further “Too many players went missing in the first half. They had the fans on their back, rightly as well, I would have been the same. When that happens, you’ve still got to have the belief and the confidence on the ball to make things happen and we didn’t have enough men out there today.”
There was a chance for Welling to go ahead but Christian Nanetti’s penalty was saved. Coyle didn’t want to use that as an excuse however, stating “You can’t rely on a penalty decision to try and win a game like this. You should create enough chances to kill teams off and I thought the better team won. They thoroughly deserved their win and that says a lot about what the boys served up.”
Coyle is ambitious and confirmed that he won’t put up with performances like this. “We have to sit down and look at it because we can’t accept that. I think this has been coming. We’ve had a good run of one defeat in nine, and it’s great, but we’ve got to have more quality and belief, and players actually wanting to get on the ball to be able to break teams down.
“We really struggled with that and got sucker punched with the penalty. It was a ridiculous decision from (Ben) Jefford to go to ground when there’s three players around him.”
At half time, Welling changed from 4-4-2 to 4-3-3 sacrificing Eli Phipps. “We wanted to get Nana (Nanetti) and Jeffrey (Monakana) higher up the bench. Again there were some great balls into the box but no-one with the desire to get on the end of it and that’s something where we miss Bradders (Tom Bradbrook), that threat and that focal point and the aggressiveness of actually attacking things in the box.”
It was hard for the supporters to take and Coyle was sorry for them. “The fans have paid good money and hard earned cash and it’s not acceptable.” He said. “Some drastic decisions maybe need to be made this week. We won’t rest on it.
“There hasn’t been the minimum requirement of work rate. The game has passed them by. I absolutely love the F.A. Cup. I’ve got some great memories. You want to get as far as you can for yourself as well as for the club and that’s shocking. We just gave the ball away under no pressure at times and with the quality and experience you expect so much more.”
Speaking about the current injury situation, Coyle said “Flo (Florent Bojaj) is struggling with a knock. Tom (Bradbrook)’s about a week and a half away, maybe two, from being fully fit and Brad (Goldberg) maybe a week behind. They are two massive players for us and we can’t wait (to have them back).”
Pierre Joseph-Dubois has not played since the third game of the season and it’s unknown when he will return. Coyle confirmed “His heel is not right. He needs to go for an MRI scan and until we know the extent of the injury, we can’t get him involved in case it makes it worse. It’s a waiting game.”
Maidstone United loanee, Harry Phipps, had to be replaced after a poor challenge against Whitehawk. Coyle said about his injury “Harry is real bad news for us. He’s done really well since he came in and he has seen the physio at at Maidstone who thinks up to six weeks out.”
Images Courtesy of Dave Budden