Rocks won't let Eastbourne defeat ruin their great start

A rollercoaster few days for the team started with them winning 
6-0 at the home of one of their rivals near the top of the league and ended with their undefeated home record disappearing as they were well-beaten 3-1 by Eastbourne Town.

Bosses Jamie Howell and Darin Killpartrick say they will not go overboard about the defeat any more than they will about the six-goal romp at Godalming, who they play again this Saturday. They insist complacency was not to blame for the loss to Eastbourne, and say as long as their players learn from the defeat, there’s no reason why they can’t go another winning run.

Eastbourne were the first opposition to win at Nyewood Lane this season and now the Rocks have to make sure they don’t slip up again when Godalming visit on Saturday for an FA Trophy second qualifying round tie, which is worth £3,000 to the winners.

Killpartrick said he had feared Tuesday night’s defeat could happen.

“I knew that would be the hardest game we’d have all season. We told the players it would be hard after they’d won so well on Saturday, but we couldn’t seem to do anything about it,” he said.

“We created chances against Eastbourne but need to be more ruthless. And we didn’t nullify the decent players they had.

“We gave them their goals by surrendering possession too easily and we mustn’t do that.

“But if you’d said to our fans in August that at the end of October, we’d be third in the league, still in the FA Trophy and would have scored nearly 40 goals, they’d have bitten your hand off.

“Now I hope we can go out on Saturday, play as we know we can and get a win to kick-start things again. It will be the biggest psychological test we have had.”

Killpartrick was buoyant after the win at Godalming, which came courtesy of a Jason Prior hat-trick, a debut goal for Kane Wills, a James Fraser strike and an own goal.

“It was as if all the hard work we’d done since pre-season was paying off. Everything we did worked,” he said.

“In fact there were signs of that against Eastbourne but we didn’t sustain it. We need to play in that manner and make sure our passing and moving is right for 60 or 70 per cent of every game.”

Howell said he got little sleep after the Eastbourne game but added: “I don’t want to be too hard on the players because they’ve done very well, not least on Saturday when they were excellent.

“I actually don’t think there was a lot of difference between Saturday and Tuesday. There’s no problem with our ability – it’s more about responsibility.

“We carved out chances but you have to score when you’re on top.

“I don’t think it will have knocked our confidence as a team, but we have to show in our next game that it hasn’t.

“Godalming will come and make it very hard for us. They won’t have liked losing 6-0 to us and they will have pride to play for and a point to prove.

“But if we’re patient we have the ability to beat them.”

Skipper Michael Birmingham was badly missed on Tuesday night and is doubtful for the Trophy tie as he struggles to overcome a bug which has laid him low for a week. But everyone else is fit.

The Rocks have released Richard Hudson after deciding he could not commit to the level of training they wanted to see from him.

Phil Turner, Dan Royce and Ben Johnson give the side plenty of other options in wide areas, but the management said they were grateful to Hudson for his efforts in his latest spell at the Lane.