Manager Neil Young says Marine can’t afford to keep wasting chances which is costing them dearly this season, and says the team need to show more battling qualities.
The Mariners suffered a 2-0 defeat at Peterborough Sports, but only after the visitors were given a gilt edge chance to take take control. Finlay Sinclair missed a penalty in the 71st minute, and to add insult to injury, Peterborough went straight back up the other end and took the lead themselves through Dan Jarvis.
Dion Sembie-Ferris finished the job in the dying minutes as a lack lustre Mariners left PIMS park with no points.
Young stressed his side can’t keep giving away big opportunities. “I thought in terms of quality it was poor, from both sides. It was like a basketball match. I think it sums us up, that’s us we miss great opportunities and then we defend very weak. That’s been the story of our season, when we’ve lost games in particular.
“You look at today’s game, we’ve missed two glorious opportunities in the first half. We get a penalty, we miss it and then 30 seconds later, weak defending, a ricochet and the ball ends up in the bottom corner. At the moment, that’s where we’re at.”
The manager is also worried Marine are defensively too fragile.
“Some of the defending, wow. I’m not just blaming our back four, our communication- no one talks at the back when they come up against a good player, what you’ve got to do is make sure you don’t make them better than you.
“We don’t find a way [to deal with tough situations] and it was the same at Rushall as well as today.”
Young says once on the back foot, the team are not showing enough fight. “There wasn’t one [a reaction]. We were waiting for them to get the second and I don’t know If that’s a confidence issue after missing the penalty.
“That’s not a good sign, they have to roll their sleeves up, we’ve got a massive game on Tuesday night, if they play like that, like they did in the last 20 minutes then they’ll get everything they deserve.”
Marine now face a quick turnaround at ninth placed Kidderminster Harriers on Tuesday night.
