‘No excuses and no complaints’ from boss Lee as Corby are well beaten

On a day when the Steelmen paid tribute to long-serving club secretary and president Gerry Lucas with an impeccably observed minute’s silence following his untimely death, things were sorely under par on the pitch.

Harborough ran out comfortable winners with former Steelmen James Ireland and Joel Carta among the scorers as the damage was done inside the first 46 minutes.

And Corby boss Attenborough insisted he took responsibility for the performance in front of a bumper crowd of 713.

“I am just disappointed in the way we lost the game, I can’t remember us having a shot on target or a shot at all if I am completely honest,” Attenborough said.

“I’ve got no excuses and no complaints, I’m not going to stand here and try to defend it.

“It wasn’t good enough from back to front and ultimately I won’t throw the players under the bus either.

“It’s my team and I pick them and I tell them what to do. If they don’t do it, that’s on me and it always has been and always has been so I take responsibility.

“I could name individuals and go really hard on them but they are lacking confidence for some reason.

“It’s a young group and, if you look at the team that finished the game, if we are being ruthless it’s nowhere near a play-off side.

“It was just too easy for them (Harborough) today.

“It’s easy to overreact because it’s a terrible, terrible result but it’s just one game.

“We scratch it and if we go and win the next three, you forget about it quickly.

“But to turn it around and win the next three is easier said than done.

“We have got to regroup, there’s a few things I need to look at, that’s clear.”

Attenborough conceded his team were punished for not doing their jobs, although he admitted the lack of depth in his squad was on show with a number of key players not available.

“I thought it was too easy for their back four,” he added.

“Our front three didn’t secure the ball once for us, we didn’t get into any dangerous areas and it took us 24 minutes for us to play the pass I wanted them to play.

“Harborough are good at what they do, they pen you in, they wanted us to play narrow and we knew the spaces were down the sides but they condensed the pitch and we played into their hands by throwing the ball down the line when we needed to play it right to left.

“We just didn’t do our jobs and when you don’t, you get punished.

“At the same time, we just haven’t got the squad depth to carry the missing players we had.

“It’s not an excuse because even the experienced lads who have been playing were poor.

“With Dan Collins, Curt Burrows, Tom Maddison all missing and Scott Floyd suspended, you can see the squad isn’t quite there.”