Images by Carl Ennis
MANAGER David Fish pulled no punches after his Mossley side was dumped out of the FA Trophy by Vauxhall Motors.
Jack Grundy’s sending off and goals from Michael Burkey and Conor Harwood ended a second road to Wembley before the Lilywhites had even set off.
Now the man in charge at Seel Park wants to see improvements, both in the forthcoming FA Cup tie against Emley and beyond.
Fish told the club: “It’s a huge game, a huge opportunity and I’m expecting a reaction.
“That’s what I want to see, a big reaction in training and on Saturday. They can’t go from 10 out of 10 to two out of 10. We’ve got to make sure our off days are six or seven out of 10.
“It was a fair result. I’ve co complaints over the red card, it looked pretty obvious but our reaction to going down to 10 men was poor. In the second half, we didn’t defend properly.
“We didn’t ask any questions going the other way, we didn’t lay a glove on them.
“Our decision making was awful, players just made the wrong ones. It’s hugely disappointing. We dropped so far below the standards we set at Bamber Bridge.
“A lack of consistency isn’t something we can do if we want to be successful.”
The manager’s frustration at his side’s performance passed on to the decisions, or lack of them from match officials.
And it is getting to the point where Eden Bailey will be told to make the most of any contact.
David added: “You’re almost saying to someone like Eden, ‘You’ve got to go down. You’ve got to make the referee make a decision. You’ve got to go down and scream.’
“That doesn’t feel right. People talk about simulation in football.
“It’s not simulation but you almost coach players to win free kicks because it seems that if you don’t go down and scream. Referees are reluctant to give them.”