CARL ADAMS warned his Stratford Town players they will be battling for their futures in the remaining six weeks of the season.
Adams admitted Town’s 2-0 defeat at King’s Lynn Town on Saturday was a reminder of their inconsistency after a series of positive displays.
They still remain ten points clear of the Southern League Premier Division danger zone but the Town manager stressed there is still much to play for, both individually and collectively.
On Saturday Town will need to raise their game when they welcome play-off contenders Chesham United to the DCS Stadium.
“In the last three or four weeks we have put in some great performances but we were very poor on Saturday,“ said Adams.
“We didn’t look like scoring and we’ve only ourselves to blame with the goals we conceded. It’s kind of one step forwards, two steps back.
“The lads know where they stand with me at the moment and they are playing for their futures at the club.
“I still believe in them but they can’t keep making the same mistakes and expect me to do nothing about it.”
King’s Lynn, with former Aston Villa assistant manager Ian Culverhouse making his managerial debut, went ahead from their first attack, with Shaun McWilliams firing home when Town failed to clear a raid down the right.
The hosts pegged back Stratford for long periods and doubled their lead 18 minutes into the second half when Tom Ward nodded home a perfect corner from Michael Clunan’s corner.
Stratford had few notable chances, with Justin Marsden firing over and Emmitt Delfouneso and Ben Stephens having efforts without troubling the Linnetts keeper.
Adams, though, felt Stratford failed to help themselves with their blunders contributing to the King’s Lynn goals.
“Individual errors have cost us in a nothing match in which otherwise they never really hurt us,” said Adams.
“We gifted them an early goal through a poor clearance but after that we hardly ever looked like scoring ourselves and although they had plenty of the ball they didn’t create many clearcut chances.
“Nevertheless at 1-0 down with half an hour left we are still in the game but then we make another basic mistake allowing their player a free header from a corner and the game is over for us from then on.
“It’s very frustrating that we’ve lost simply because we’ve not been doing our jobs and the lads have to realise this cannot continue.
“We should have done better and we will need to in the remaining games of the season.”
Adams will await a roll-call of players before facing seventh placed Chesham.
Jamie Spencer missed Saturday’s game after knee and neck injuries sustained in a car crash travelling back from training while fellow striker Mike Taylor had a lower back problem. Simeon Tulloch was also ruled out.
Jean Kalenda also limped off at King’s Lynn with an ankle injury but one plus for Town was the return of joint top scorer Edwin Ahenkorah for his first appearance since hurting his knee against Chesham in January.
