Steve Morison said his players failed to do the fundamentals with an honest post-match reflection, talking after Sutton’s 3-2 defeat to Tamworth.
The U’s fell to another loss after goals from Joe Riley and Tyler Roberts put Tamworth into a cruising 2-0 lead, and although two quickfire Lewis Simper strikes saw Sutton draw level before the half was out, Manny Duku scored the decisive goal just a minute later after some poor defending led to Morison’s men falling behind once more.
On his thoughts on the game, Morison said:
“It’s a really tough question to answer because yeah, you just shoot yourself in the foot. It’s so difficult to come back from, we did, then we shot ourselves in the foot again. I’m lost for words at times because we knew exactly what was going to happen, we worked on it all week.”
“We got ourselves back in the game and then second half, it was like the Alamo and they had a couple of moments on the counter, which was always going to kind of happen when we’re pushing and committing so many men forward.”
“It was a laughable at times, trying to put the ball in the back of the net and that’s an individual thing, that’s a player thing. They’ve got to take some more pride in their finishing, believe they’re going to score a goal and yeah, it’s another loss and it’s tough.”
Despite going behind by two within 20 minutes, the hosts managed to find a way back into it when Simper struck twice across the span of just seven minutes, but it took just a minute for Sutton to fall behind again, with Morison giving a brutally honest assessment of the third goal.
“Yeah, it [the reaction to going behind] was great, and then we go 2-2 and then the fundamentals of football, which you learn when you’re four years old or five years old are little kickers: one go for the ball, one cover your mate, put a name on it and we don’t and they go and score.”
“At half time we said ‘man up’. Fundamentals of football, you’ve got to do the fundamentals of football right. You’ve got to be a man, you’ve got to go out there and leave everything on the line for the fans and for yourselves. They gave a good go in the second half, but a good go is not good enough.”
“What’s the point of great chances if you’re not putting it back in the net? I mean, you might as well have not bothered. I know it sounds really flippant, but yeah, there can’t be that many opportunities and flashes across the box and moments like that which you don’t capitalise on. They have to be better, we have to be better.”
“Credit to the fans, they stuck with them the whole way, they clapped them off the pitch. That’s all we can ask and we’re thankful to them for that.”
Sutton are back in action with the visit of Brighton & Hove Albion in the National League on Tuesday night, and Morison said it will be an opportunity for the U’s to bounce back and start afresh in a different competition.
“I’m going to have to give everyone a game, get them some minutes. I’m also going to have to play players that have played a hell of a lot of football, I’ll maybe to have a look at it in detail, but yeah, it’s been a tough afternoon.”
