After United’s 5-0 defeat away to York City, we spoke to Head Coach Mark Hughes.
Speaking to CUTV, he said: “We got off to a really poor start, obviously came out too readily, didn't wait for the ball to be totally cleared, so we conceded after a very short period of time, and then, it was difficult from that moment on, it seemed.
“We're very unlucky with obviously the penalty clearly offside, 2-0, that obviously gets their tails up and they're enjoying the game and in saying that, still thought we had a foothold on the game.
“We needed to get to half-time at 2-0 and then regroup, but made the fatal mistake of conceding right at the end, 3-0. It's nigh on impossible to get back into that game, but you say all the right things in the dressing room, and then we come out and we concede again.
“So, very easy evening for them really, they can pick and choose their moments then and hit us on the break, good quality players at the top end of the pitch that can make the right decisions and test you in 1v1s.
“We were poor in our duels today, too many times we just knocked off the ball or came out with the ball individually and collectively, so that's not what we've been about.
“The reason we've got 23 points at this point in the season is because we've had a good shape and we've battled hard and we've made it difficult for opposition teams, but made it too easy for the opposition today, albeit they played well, you have to give it to them, but for my point of view we could have done a lot better today.”
On the differences between the performance against York and Altrincham, he said: “I think the lads had a go, I don't think anybody has just not tried, clearly we were trying to get back into the game.
“But when you're obviously conceding 2-3 goals and you try and get back in the game, you take more risk, and that means that you're more in danger on turnovers, and they're very adept at transitional play, and so that was always going to be the case.
“We needed to get back into the game as early as possible, but unfortunately, we weren't able to do that. The second goal and the third goal are just taking the game away from us.”
On the manner of the defeat: “We had a really great performance as a team on the weekend, difficult circumstances down at ten men, who knows, maybe that just took the edge off our play tonight.
“It's not an excuse, but I just think at times we were just half a yard short and that enabled them just to get on the front foot, so you have to cut the lads a little bit of slack in terms of that, but a lot of the mistakes we made were of our own making.
“Listen, we've got to put this to bed, we're in a good situation, we lost the battle, we want to win the war, that's the key, so it's still early days.”
When asked whether he considered making changes at half-time, he said: “I thought they needed to go out again and prove me wrong in fairness, so I kept them out there, like I said, the third goal is the one that's really taken the game away from us.
“So at that stage later on the game you're thinking well damage limitation really, because we had to protect a few of the players that have put a good stint in this season up to this point, so we made substitutions with that in mind and we've got a big game at the weekend, so this game had gone, so we need to get on with it.”
On what the message was to the players, he said: “We can't dwell on this, there was elements of a play that would have helped us if we were able to be consistent and sustain it for the 90 minutes.
“We weren't able to do that today, but at the weekend up against another good team who will test us, but we won't have a similar scenario, I can assure you.”
And on the fantastic travelling support, he said: “We haven't given anything at all to get behind, unfortunately, and that's disappointing for us all, but they know we'll be ready to go at the weekend and we'll have to put that away."
