After our defeat against Sutton United, we spoke to Mark Hughes.
Speaking to CUTV, he said: "Disappointed really in what we produced. We knew we needed to be a lot better, certainly in the second-half. I didn't think we really got to a point where we had real momentum in terms of chances created and pressure.
"It was too easy for Sutton. In fairness, they slowed the game down, made it a game of transitions and long balls and obviously stop-start, which is the game they wanted. That's a game plan, which is fine. It's a tactic. We have to get used to that. But when we did have opportunities, I just felt we didn't take the right option.
"We had a couple of chances in the first-half could have been one or two ahead, but it wasn't to be. In the end, you fear the worst. At some point, you're going to be at risk. Defensively, we didn't clear our lines when we should have done and then we made a mistake at the back with the long ball, which shouldn't have happened.
"Overall, we had a little bit of a go at the end, but that wasn't enough. Clearly, the performance as a whole didn't merit any more than what we got, which was nothing.
"I just thought they kept on turning us around. We didn't really deal with that. We didn't pick up the second balls as much as we had in that first-half. Constantly having to turn and face our own goal. We found it difficult to get any real clarity in terms of our play or what we were trying to achieve on the day and get a goal at the end because we were prepared to commit bodies forward and take a chance."
Luke Armstrong had the ball in the back of the hosts' net in the first-half, however, it wasn't given as the attacker was deemed to have fouled one of the hosts' defenders in the process.
Speaking on that, Hughes explained: "Well, the referee has his own interpretation most times when he's out there. I was just disappointed that he didn't get onto the tactic of time-wasting in the part of the game. If the referee highlights it, then there's no point in telling him to hurry in the 94th minute. It just doesn't make any sense at all. But that's not the reason we got beat. We just didn't deal with the key moments and we didn't create enough ourselves."
Assessing the contest in further detail, he continued: "I think too many times the ball dropped short or dropped in front of their defenders to come and attack, whereas the difference in terms of their balls towards our back line was they were constantly going over the back line and we were having to recover.
"We've got to understand that and recognise that if we are going to go long, then you have to give it height, distance and get after it."
Looking ahead briefly to Wednesday's trip to Brackley Town, Mark said: "I expect more than we had today. There was plenty of effort, but it was a little bit misdirected at times. We needed to understand how we could get a real foothold in the game rather than just getting sucked into the way they wanted to play.
"We didn't deal with that aspect of the play at all well. So it's going to be more of the same, certainly in the week. So we've just got to bounce back very, very quickly and understand that and put in a better performance and get a better result."
