Sam Cox says he ‘can’t accept’ the poor defending exhibited by his Wealdstone side in the 4-0 National League defeat to York City on Saturday.
Despite a valiant physical performance both in and out of possession, the Stones failed to ever gain a foothold in the match and found themselves two goals behind at half-time after Malachi Walcott and Ollie Pearce both struck to give the Minstermen a comfortable lead.
The latter then added a third on the hour mark before Alex Newby put the seal on an impressive win for the hosts, leaving Wealdstone boss Cox with plenty to ponder.
The Stones manager said: “What we can’t accept is the sloppy goals that we’ve given away. We understand that ultimately, we’ve asked them to play a certain way away from home at York, and I think in the big moments I think you probably saw the difference in quality, the difference in fitness and physicality.
“The moments that they had to capitalise on us, they punished us. They’ve got killers in their team; they’re a good outfit. Stuart [Maynard] is doing a great job with these boys. It’s a massive club for this division.
“So, I think in those big moments, they capitalised, and unfortunately, we didn’t – we got punished. I’m really disappointed with a 4-0 loss, but in terms of effort and heart, the boys didn’t stop for 90 minutes, so I have to give them credit for that.”
Prior to the match, Wealdstone announced on their website that full-back Terrell Agyemang had joined the club on an initial one-month loan deal from fellow National League outfit Morecambe, who started in the defeat to York.
An untimely double injury to Anthony Georgiou and Alfie Massey earlier in the week accelerated plans for a deal for Agyemang, according to Cox.
“We’ve lost Anthony Georgiou in the last week through an Achilles problem, and also we lost Alfie Massey, who’s out for a long period of time, so I think the fans saw what we saw, that we’re patching a few up at the moment,” he said.
“That’s the game, and we’re up against York, who’ve got a fantastic budget and a full-time professional outfit, and we’re patching up bodies, doing our work in a part-time capacity.
“But the boys are trying so hard. We’ve brought T [Agyemang] in to help the group. We know he comes in with a pedigree with his academy background. He wasn’t going to get the game time that he wanted at Morecambe.
“I’ve known T for a long time, and he’s come in today having only trained for a week. T came in, and he’s done a job in there.
“He’s going to be required. Everybody’s going to be required now over the next couple of weeks, as we’ve got a tough schedule coming up.”
After losing 2-0 at home to Nottingham Forest U21s in the National League Cup on Tuesday night, the Stones are back on home soil once again this weekend as Cox’s side welcome Sutton United to Grosvenor Vale (3pm).
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