Chelmsford City Reserves Manager Marc Stephan has aired his belief that tiredness played a factor in the 2-0 defeat against Sudbury Sports.
On Tuesday night, the City side fell to their first defeat since the opening day of the Essex & Suffolk Border League Premier Division.
Two goals in the space of five minutes from Brad Byrne and Matt Price for the hosts ended a run of four wins on the bounce for the Clarets.
Speaking to chelmsfordcityfc.com after the game, Stephan said: “Looking at where Sudbury are in the table, I think we very much underestimated them; I thought they were by far the better team.
“They were physically strong and robust. In parts of the game, we had more control, but it never lasted for more than a short period, so they definitely deserved the win.”
With the Reserves’ campaign having begun on Saturday, 7th August, the side has played six games over a 17-day period.
With that number of games over a relatively short period of time, the Manager felt that his side was showing signs of tiredness.
He said: “I did find the players tired after 5/10 minutes in the game, there were some tell-tale signs.
“Fifteen minutes later on, we were just repeating the same mistakes: trying to force the ball through, playing it in the air, just straightforward balls. Nothing was really on.
“So, A) it was a strong side, and B) we were a very tired side tonight.
“At half-time, we spoke with them and they weren’t that frustrated, but they recognised everything that they were doing wrong.
“They were not blaming each other but then we came out for the second half and we didn’t see anything change at all.”
The Reserves will be back in action on Friday night, hosting Barnston at the EMG Inspire Stadium in a 7:45pm kick-off.
“We need to switch on from the start and keep it simple, tonight we didn’t keep anything simple,” Stephan explained when discussing Friday’s game.
“We need to not force it and keep the ball, the same way we have been doing in the previous games that we’ve played.
“We’ve got to be careful with Barnston, they’re probably not as good on the ball as Sudbury are but they’re a lot more physical, so perhaps we need to change the tactics a little bit at the start of the game and see how we get on.”
Interview by: Chris Berry
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