Hayes refuses to fault attitude of his Holbeach United players after shock cup loss

Holbeach United 2
Olney Town 4

Boss Seb Hayes couldn’t hide his disappointment after watching his Holbeach United crash out of the ChromaSport UCL Knockout Cup on Saturday.

The Premier Division Tigers were upset 4-2 by Division One outfit Olney Town at Carter’s Park as they exited the competition at the quarter-final stage.

Goals from Nick Bines (2 and 52), Lukasz Filipiak (31) and Christian Smail (45) humbled Holbeach and rendered strikes from Aaron Eyett (40) and Spencer Tinkler (in the second half) as mere consolation.

Hayes branded the defeat, which was a fourth on the bounce for the Tigers, as “sloppy” – and admits that Olney deserved to progress to the last four.

He said: “No disrespect to Olney – they deserved their win – but with the team we had out we should be winning the game.

“We gave away such a sloppy goal having dealt with a corner early on and then got hit on the break way too easily for 2-0.

“But we got ourselves back into the game and, at 2-1, we looked like having every chance in the second half.

“Then we go and let in a third in the final minute of the first half and everything changed. I’ll not lie, I read the riot act to the lads at half time.

“But they’re so low on confidence at the moment and it just didn’t work. We never looked like coming back in the second half.

“You have to credit Olney, they were the better side for a good 70 minutes and deserve to progress.

“But I’m left scratching my head. I’ve tried everything with these players, but they’re just not responding. Maybe it’s time I started dropping a few of them.

“I can’t accept any more of what I’ve seen in the past few games.

“However, one game can change everything and we’re only a win away from changing our fortunes.

“It sounds like an excuse, but Saturday wasn’t made any easier by us not having a full strength squad.

“I had youngsters and reserve team players in the squad.

“That’s great in principle, but you don’t want to be blooding talented younger players into a team that is playing with no confidence.

“When we get a full squad available, I’m confident that things will improve.

“But, like I said last week, things might get worse before they get better.

“We all need to pull our fingers out and pull together. One thing I certainly can’t fault is the attitude and commitment – the players have been giving it their all.

“Sadly, that’s just not been good enough in the past few weeks.”

Holbeach are back in action in the Lincs FA Senior Trophy quarter-final at Boston Town on Wednesday night (7.45pm).

Tigers: Drury, Walton (Millinson), Cartwright, Jackson, Shepherd (Muldrew), Tinkler, Pinner, Ward, Treacher, Eyett (Davies), Ford.