SCOTT Adey-Linforth praised the board’s brave decision to appoint him as Bromsgrove Sporting manager despite suffering a final day 3-2 home defeat against Bishop’s Stortford.
The Rouslers surrendered a half-time lead against relegation-threatened Bishop’s Stortford as Jamie Meddows and Theo Robinson struck to cancel out Harry Forde’s early opener at the Victoria Ground.
However, goals from Luka Chalwell and Rashawn Scott turned the game in favour of the visitors who secured safety with victory while Reece King saw red late on for the Rouslers.
The result means Sporting finish the Southern League Premier Central season in 14th place, five points above the relegation zone.
And Adey-Linforth hopes to retain a number of players who have helped the club secure safety this season.
Adey-Linforth said: “It’s been a tough season, everyone is mentally and physically tired, we’ve had some unbelievable moments along the way.
“We need to rest, it’s a battered group and they’ve been put through it this season, we’ll come back pre-season and try and get as fit and as strong as we can to compete next year.
“One of the things we pride ourselves on is having a really strong dressing room and a strong culture and we’ll use pre-season to develop that.
“The first thing I’ve got to do is try and retain a lot of these players over the next few weeks and add some new faces as well.
“It was a brave decision from the board to give me a job, the fans have got behind me, it’s my first-ever job and they’ve stuck by me.
“It’s been the story of the last few weeks, we were absolutely brilliant in the first half and well worth the lead.
“We conceded a goal in the second half and lost all shape, structure and mentality.
“Standards went out of the window and we ended up losing the game which is really disappointing.
“[The defending] is not good enough, a big thing for me is you have to be defensively strong, we’ve come away from that in the last month.
“The work was done before and thankfully we’re in a position where we’ve stayed in the league.
“The team loses focus and everything becomes a bit chaotic when we concede a goal, it’s a little bit of a concern and something we’ll address going into next season.”
The visitors broke the deadlock after just two minutes when Forde finished a cross from the right from close range.
However, Sporting equalised on 36 minutes as Meddows lashed a low effort past Elliot Krasniqi from 20-yards out via the base of the right-hand post.
And the Rouslers completed the turnaround on the stroke of half time when Robinson finished at the back post after King headed the ball across the face of goal.
However, Bishop’s Stortford equalised on 64 minutes as Chalwell looped a shot over Charlie Price and into the bottom right corner.
And the visitors reclaimed the lead on 73 minutes when Scott spun on the ball in the box and fired a shot past Price at his near post.
The season ended on a sour note for Sporting with King shown a straight red card for a lunging challenge on Cole Dasilva.
