Jon Meeney touched on the importance of not feeling sorry after Sutton lost 4-3 against Boreham Wood.
The U’s managed to score three extremely good goals against the Wood and took the lead at the end of the first half, but ultimately fell short of a point as late goals from Zak Brunt and Érico Sousa turned the game on its head after Abdul Abdulmalik had levelled things up just after the hour-mark.
“It was a basketball game, end to end, that’s the game they [Boreham Wood] wanted and ultimately we fell into that trap” said Meeney.
“We spoke at half time we got back into the game, went 2-1 up, had a good chat at half time, wanted to take the game away from Boreham Wood in the second period, spoke about our pressing structures which he first three references on the pressing structures in the second half. We capitalised regarding high regains, should have led to goals we didn’t, we didn’t take away the game from Boreham Wood and we got punished.”
Having taken the lead for a 20-minute spell after initially going behind thanks to an early Jeff King strike, the manner in which Sutton lost will have been especially disappointing for Meeney as well as Head Coach, Steve Morison, who were unable to build on last Saturday’s win over Carlisle United.
“We wanted to go back-to-back and we haven’t, it’s very disappointing, very frustrating, you can imagine the emotions. I didn’t like the game one bit, we wanted a bit more control, wanted some spells on the ball, but when it becomes transitional and it becomes a basketball game you have to try and find a little bit of clarity in what you’re doing, a little bit of structure, try and be as joined up as you can and when your moments do come you have to capitalise.”
“We spoke to the lads about it yesterday in the pre-match build-up that if we do get our chances we have to make sure that we’re convincing in the final third, have belief in what we’re doing and make good decisions, be clinical in our actions. If you don’t do that, they’re ready to go on the transition the other way and it becomes a dangerous game and not a game that we want.”
Jayden Harris had levelled the score with his first goal in almost a year, with his recovery from last term’s season-ending Achilles injury sending him on a path that had led to him finally making his long-awaited return to action this season, and epitomises the hard work required to do so.
“His journey from the massive injury that he had is the testament to him” Meeney added. “Anyone coming back from an injury like that shows his character, the sacrifice, the commitment, the resilience and ultimately those traits is what the whole group’s got to show because we can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we’ve got to make sure we stand tall and we go again on Saturday.”
Sutton now have the chance to recover quickly from defeat against the Wood, with a lunchtime trip to Altrincham up next as they look to bounce back and secure the elusive second win of the campaign in front of the DAZN cameras.
“We’ve got to recover, the boys will be off tomorrow, it’ s important they get their recovery in, they’ve got to look after themselves. We can’t feel sorry for ourselves, we’ve got to make sure we man up, we mature and then we travel on Friday, we’ll train on the way up and then we’ve just got to be the best version on Saturday and get this out of our system.”
