BROMSGROVE Sporting boss Paul Smith says defeat at the weekend to Nuneaton Griff came sooner than he expected.
Griff claimed a narrow 1-0 victory over the Rouslers at the Victoria Ground courtesy of a second half strike from Luke Shorthouse, a goal which succumbed Sporting to their first home defeat of the Midland League Division One season.
And for Smith, the defeat came sooner than he wanted after his side was on a 10-game winning streak before Saturday’s game.
“People are going overboard about us losing as we were on such a good winning streak,” he said.
“It’s another defeat for the club but I was not expecting us to win every single game up until the end of the season.
“Yes, the defeat came a little earlier than we wanted but we have to pick ourselves up and bounce back.”
The Rouslers will look to return to winning ways tonight (Tuesday) as they welcome fifth placed Lichfield City to the Victoria Ground.
City are on a rich vein of form themselves, having lost only one of their last 10 league outings, that defeat coming at the weekend as they slumped to a 2-0 defeat at third place Leicester Road.
And for Smith, tonight cannot be a repeat performance of Saturday.
“You cannot afford to play badly against the top sides or you get turned over,” he said.
“I told my players after the game they had not performed well enough.
“I keep a little book and mark how well my players do, safe to say that on Saturday nobody scored more than six-and-a-half.
“I’m looking to make a couple of changes this weekend to freshen the side up and if we play well I am more than confident we will win.”
Following the game against Nuneaton, the game was spoiled by some post match antics by both sets of players but Smith insisted it was just over exuberance.
“Since I arrived at the club it became apparent to me that the one game teams look forward to travelling to is Bromsgrove.
“It’s like their cup final and everybody wants to get a good result against us so I can see why the Griff players were celebrating the way they did.
“There was some over exuberance from the youngsters but it was not as bad as it looked.”
