Mettam unhappy at sluggish start as Steelmen suffer defeat to Anstey Nomads
Leon Mettam criticised his Corby Town players for their sluggish start that gave Anstey Nomads a '45-minute head start' on their way to a 2-1 Pitching-In Northern Premier League Midlands Division win at Steel Park on Saturday.
The Steelmen almost got away with their slow opening, but they ended up trailing 1-0 at half-time after on-loan goalkeeper Theo Avery gifted the visitors an own goal on 14 minutes, parrying a corner into his own net via the far post.
An improved second-half showing led to teenager Harrison Jones hammering home from the penalty spot on 77 minutes after he had been fouled in the area.
The Corby joy was short-lived though, as some quick thinking from a throw in allowed Anstey to net a winner just six minutes later to seal the 2-1 win, and Mettam was not overly impressed.
"It is really frustrating," Mettam told @corbytownfc. "I didn't think we started well or approached the game in the right manner.
"I called it in the warm up, in fact I called it as soon as we got to the ground. We were just lethargic, and the complete opposite to the previous week.
"We went out for the warm up, the warm up was poor, and I let them know that before the game even started.
"We then went out and gave Anstey a 45-minute head start, which you can't do at this level, especially against a team that is up there and fighting for the play-offs themselves.
"Every first and second ball, the third, fourth or fifth even, we didn't really lay a glove on them throughout the first half.
"A corner comes in, the keeper flaps at one, and we probably should come in at 0-0 but it didn't quite work out like that.
"I still thought we were in the game, and we went out for the second half and huffed and puffed and had a really good go.
"We eventually got the penalty, got back in the game, and then got caught by a restart, and I hark on about it all the time, you have to switch on from restarts and we didn't switch on for that one.
"They threw the ball in behind us, the cross comes over and it's a tap-in."
The loss saw the Steelmen slip to ninth in the Midlands Division table, but they are still only two points off the play-offs ahead of their next game, the trip to 11th-placed Mickleover on Saturday.