Smith blasts ‘lack of passion’
Monday 10th August 2009, 12:22PM BST.
AFC Telford boss Rob Smith has condemned his side’s lack of “drive and passion” after their opening day draw at home to Blyth Spartans in the Blue Square North.
Smith was left fuming after the Bucks failed to break down Blyth at the New Bucks Head on Saturday, emerging with a 1-1 draw to get their promotion campaign off to a stuttering start.
Steve Torpey was the hero after his 40th minute goal cancelled out an early strike from the visitors, but Smith remained convinced that his side should have taken all three points.
He said: “We got a goal at the right time, but we never took it on and there were some really flat performances out there.
“I can’t say how disappointed I am.”
He added: “For me, there wasn’t enough drive and passion out there today, so it was a disappointing and flat day. But we will take the point and move on.”
Torpey’s long-range strike in the first half was the midfielder’s third for the Bucks since his summer arrival from Stalybridge, following pre-season goals against Port Vale and Llanelli.
And the new arrival believes Telford need to break teams down if they are to enjoy a successful campaign.
“I was disappointed with the result. I wanted to get a win for Telford in my first game, but I think it’s a long season.
“They came and got men behind the ball and made it difficult for us. We might have to learn how to deal with that.”
By JAMES SHAW
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I live in the North East, was not there on Saturday, and tend to see more away games than home, I did however listen to the online commentary and it seems to me that , particularly in the absence of Whitehead,the old defensive failings of two seasons ago are still there.I would like to see a good sweeper playing behind Cowan and Whitehead.We are consistently informed of a shortfall in funding yet habitually lose to clubs with average gates of well under 500 who also usually have lower admission charges so [ rather like Newcastle & Leeds in the Football League ] the excuses can only go on for so long.
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