Vernon pleased with ‘fighting spirit’ despite another defeat for Diamonds

Diamonds slipped to a 3-1 defeat to Andy Peaks’ table-topping Tamworth at Hayden Road last night (Tuesday) to leave themselves nine points adrift of safety at the wrong end of the table.

It was a sixth defeat in a row for Diamonds but Vernon was left “incredibly proud” of the effort they put in against a team geared towards a promotion challenge this season.

Diamonds trailed 2-0 before Kartell Dawkins’ fine low strike gave them some hope on the stroke of half-time.

But their chances were ended when former Diamonds skipper Alex Collard grabbed a third for the Lambs, despite it initially being ruled out for offside.

And that decision was one that left interim manager Vernon somewhat perplexed.

“First of all, I am incredibly proud of the players,” he said.

“The fighting spirit they need was there all game and I said they should stand up and be proud.

“The way they dug in was great and they played some decent football on a tough surface.

“I am still very confused by the third goal.

“My initial thought was if a player is offside, then the first touch has come off a Tamworth head. “So if the linesman has flagged and the referee has blown for offside, I don’t know why he has changed his mind and said it has come off a white head. I don’t know.”

Vernon, meanwhile, reserved a word of praise for Leicester City loanee Dawkins, although he was withdrawn in the second half after he was left “walking a bit of a tightrope” following a booking soon after half-time.

“He’s a fantastic player, there’s a reason why he’s at Leicester City and we are lucky to have him,” Vernon added.

“It was a shame he had to come off, he was walking a bit of a tightrope and that didn’t help us because he was having a fantastic game.”