Daryl McMahon claimed his side’s performance at Woking on Tuesday night was “way below” the standards he has set this season and that they didn’t give the travelling fans enough as a group.
Speaking to BBC Radio Kent’s Charles Webster, the Fleet manager felt his squad dipped below the performance levels they’d set against Leyton Orient and Wrexham. “I thought we were poor,” he said. “Nowhere near the level I expect us to be at. I can take a Wrexham defeat, it was a good performance, that defeat tonight was poor from us. Not taking anything away from Woking, but from the standard I expect from our team and our football club, nowhere near it, a million miles from it.
“It baffles me how you go from beating Leyton Orient, playing well, going to Wrexham and putting on, particularly second half, an excellent performance, and then tonight is way, way below where we expect to be.”
Fleet struggled to break down the Woking defence who stood firm ahead of their rookie goalkeeper Sam Mason, who drew praise from the home faithful for his performance.
“They protected him well, we tried to [put him under pressure] with some balls into the box and to be fair to him he came out and caught some crosses, he did alright,” McMahon said. “They had a couple of counterattacks in the second half but like I said the damage was done in the first half. It was a poor first-half performance, it was a poor goal, embarrassing to be honest. Everything about the goal was embarrassing.
“It’s a fact we’re not getting completely the rub of the green with injuries, referees, but I’m not one to make issues. I think you’ve got to look at yourself in the mirror sometimes and go, did I actually perform tonight? And we didn’t have enough that can say that. It doesn’t matter what the referee does or doesn’t do, if we don’t perform then you can’t win anyway. I didn’t get to say it Saturday but the fans Saturday and tonight were terrific again and we didn’t give them enough.”
Fleet lost Andy Drury just before half-time after he was smacked in the face by a Chris Bush clearance and the club will monitor whether the midfielder will need to sit out the typical seven days for a concussion.
“He was concussed, he didn’t know what the score was but he’s OK now,” McMahon reported. “The normal sort of thing is seven days for a concussion if it is confirmed. Knowing Jukesy he could have just forgotten the score, you know what he’s like! We’ll see how he is in training on Thursday.”
McMahon will also hope to welcome back a few more bodies with Bradley Bubb and Yado Mambo expected to be fit for Saturday and two others not far off being involved.
“I believe in the players I’ve got,” he said. “I’ve got Dave Winfield, who will play a game next week, a reserve game behind closed doors. Jack Payne won’t be a million miles away. They’re key players for us. So we’re looking to get a few back. Bradley Bubb only has a tight hamstring, it was a precaution taking him off [at Wrexham]. The last thing we want is for him to be out long-term so hopefully we’ll have him back for the weekend and Yado Mambo is short-term, he should be OK for Saturday.
“After tonight and training Thursday, every shirt’s up for grabs apart from Nathan Ashmore’s. That’s a fact. You cannot perform and expect to stay in the team. I’ll back them and I love all of them but we need to perform better than we did tonight.”
Listen to full interview below.
https://soundcloud.com/eufcofficial/daryl-mcmahon-after-woking
