Western League
Premier Division
Saltash United 1 Oldland Abbotonians 3
Manager Macca Brown was scathing about his young Saltash squad after they threw away another lead to succumb to defeat at the Waterways Stadium on Saturday.
Brown accused the players of having a ‘mentality problem’ and a ‘weakness of mind’ and said they needed to ‘grow up quickly’ if they were to turn the season around.
Winger Kieran O’Melia’s 11th goal of the season gave the Ashes an eighth minute advantage but once Tom Blake equalised from the penalty spot in the 39th minute, the home side caved in.
Blake put Oldland ahead a minute before half-time and completed his hat-trick five minutes into the second half with his second penalty.
Brown said: “There’s no hiding place for us really; as games go on, patterns start developing and things become clearer and it’s pretty damning when you look at it.
“Yesterday was the ninth time this season we’ve gone ahead in a game and ended up
losing, not even able to take a draw home with us, and that says everything.
“Generally the pattern is that we are fantastic in the first stage of the game, we go ahead and everything is great, sometimes it looks like it might be even be quite straightforward and that’s probably the highest problem.
“We fall into a comfort zone and unfortunately then there is a usually a moment that may go against us, a decision, a goal, a mistake, and it doesn’t matter how small the problem is, it sets off a huge grenade that sees us self-destruct.
“It’s a mentality problem, it’s a weakness in the mind, not being able to deal with moments of adversity and every side we face have the complete opposite mindset.
“The talent is there in our group and when things are going well it’s great, but at the moment there seems to be no coming back from that moment of adversity and it’s destroying our season.
“We’ve taken too long to recognise it, but there’s no doubt the cat is out of the bag now.”
He went on: “I feel for the lads in some respects because they’re looking around the room and not seeing many lads with 200 senior games behind them and that wealth of experience that would help guide them through it and you need that on a pitch.
“Maybe with the age of the squad it’s to be expected, but the fact is it’s not expected at Saltash United, they’re not used to seeing it.
“I’ve seen it before, early in my time at Millbrook it was similar, emotional and rash in moments but those boys turned into animals by the end that nobody liked playing against.
“No challenge was too big or opponent too good, and some of those lads will probably go on and win the league this season thanks to that growth.
“It’s obviously one of those things that develops in time, I know that, but the boys don’t have time here.
“They need to grow up quickly and recognise that because they have an opportunity to wear this shirt and they’re throwing it away because nobody is waiting around for give years for it to flourish.”
Brown added: “There have been moments this season where we’ve shown resilience and come from behind to win, or to take a point, or held onto a lead, so I don’t know how they don’t take belief from that.
“Talent only gets you so far, it may get you in the changing room in the first place but it isn’t enough on its own to keep you in there long term and I hope the lads have heard that loud and clear.
“Wherever you look it’s grim reading, we’ve taken three points from 12 against sides currently below us in the league so there’s no escape, there’s no excuse, it’s look in the mirror time.
“It’s Helston up next, so it’s a tough one, but we’ve done well against the good sides in this league maybe due to the lack of expectation, so I hope we can put in more of a complete performance.”
Saltash: J Duffey, T Love-Holmes, E Wright, E Goodman, H Greening, J Toulson (J Curtis 61), K O’Melia (B Goulty 68), T Huyton (L Murray 57), T Badcott, A Goulty, J Ewing.
KJM SPORTS 