Daisy Hill’s hopes of making the play-off places in the North West Counties League First Division North are all but over after a disappointing 3-0 defeat at home to MSB Woolston on Saturday.
It was an afternoon to forget for Daisy, who squandered some good early chances before shipping two poor goals in the first half, before the game was put out of sight when the visitors added a third goal 10 minutes after the break.
Daisy manager Nicky Hunt pulled no punches in his post-match assessment.
“We’ve been done over at home by a team that were well-organised, who will probably end up in the play-offs, and they’ve done a number on us today,” said Hunt.
“In the attacking third we were non-existent and that’s not been like us at all. We’re usually always making great chances, and we always look like we’re threatening in the final third, but today it was just non-existent.
“The first six or seven minutes, I thought we were really good. Then after that it’s hard to put in words what actually happened here.
“I was thinking, yeah, we’ve got a game on today, but we know how to hurt them. They will make mistakes, which they did, but we didn’t capitalise on them.
“They’re a big, strong team, who play some good football, so fair credit to them, but it was a poor performance for us.
“There were 11 players on that pitch that didn’t do what I asked of them before the game.
“They did it for the first six or seven minutes, but after that, they just wanted to do their own thing.
“Luckily, at half time, it was two-nil, but it could have been a cricket score in that first half, I’ll be honest. They missed some really, really good chances.
“It’s just incredibly frustrating from my point of view, going from a performance at Squires Gate last week, into this.
“But such is football. We’ve just got to take it in our stride and it’s on the lads to deliver in the last five games. It’s all about us finishing the season strong and help to build on what we’ve already built here.”
The eventually disappointing outcome was all the more frustrating, given Daisy had made a bright start to the game.
In the fourth minute, Jacob Ridings was denied by a good point-blank save from MSB Woolton keeper Charlie Jones, and from the resulting corner curled in by Luca Latona, Liam Sheppard smashed a shot into the side-netting.
The strong running of Harry Forshaw was causing the visiting defence some problems, and he was unlucky in the 15th minute when his effort from the edge of the box just missed the target.
But three minutes later, MSB Woolton took the lead when a cross curled to the far post found Joe Harvey with time and space to send an unchallenged header past Jude Smith for the opening goal.
Nine minutes later, the visitors doubled their advantage when a long ball through the middle caught out the Daisy defence, and MSB Woolton’s leading scorer Daniel Ventre raced through to toe poke the ball at full stretch past the advancing Smith from the edge of the box.
Daisy rang the changes at half time, introducing three substitutes in Kris Holt, Dec Baldwin and Abubakhar Muhammed, but the game was pretty much over when MSB Woolton added a third goal 10 minutes in.
Once again the Daisy defence was guilty of slack marking, and Jay Liddle headed home unchallenged at the near post from a right-wing corner.
From then on, the game pretty much fizzled out, with Daisy struggling to break through a well-organised visiting defence.
In the closing stages, Murphy just failed to connect with a cross from Muhammed, and Holt had a header that fell narrowly wide, but the eventual outcome never looked in doubt.
Daisy are back in action in the North West Counties League First Division North on Saturday when they travel to face Colne.
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