MATT Taylor admits his Solihull Moors players are ‘in a lot of pain’ after suffering a 3-1 home defeat against play-off chasing Gateshead.
Moors saw their winless run stretch to eight matches as Fletcher Holman netted an injury-time goal for the home side in vain at Damson Park.
That came after former Solihull loanee Jovan Malcolm opened the scoring after just four minutes before Luke Hannant scored two penalties after the break.
The result leaves Moors 14th in the National League table with the club now closer to the relegation zone than they are to the play-off places.
Solihull head coach Taylor wants his side to show more fight but admits his players are low on confidence following a disappointing run of results.
Taylor said: “Not good enough [the performance], we weren’t first to enough balls, we could have been further behind at the break.
“We started the second half on the front foot but ultimately it comes down to errors that we’ve made, two penalties.
“The first one is a stonewall penalty the second one I can’t understand how the referee has given it but that’s not the reason we lost the game.
“We didn’t win enough fifty-fifties, we weren’t strong enough and the players are in a lot of pain, they’re in a bad way.
“The players can’t go into a shell, the result is nowhere near good enough for the standards that have been set at this football club.
“We’ve got to pick a team that is going to go out and compete and fight because we’re in a fight.
“I’ll accept all the criticism but the performance level wasn’t anywhere near what I would expect from our group of players.
“They’re low on confidence at the moment which is understandable, but we can’t start to feel sorry for ourselves.
“I can accept mistakes but I can’t accept that we don’t do the side of the football game that requires no talent.
“The players are hurting right now but we’ve got to dust ourselves quickly and get a win on the board ASAP.”
Moors made the worst possible start as Malcolm drove towards the penalty area and saw his shot deflect past a helpless Ollie Wright after just four minutes.
And the visitors won a penalty after the break on 59 minutes when James Clarke brought down Malcolm from behind in the box.
Hannant confidently placed the resulting spot kick into the bottom left corner to double the visitors lead.
And Gateshead won a second penalty five minutes from time as Hannant lashed the ball into the top left corner from the spot.
Moors scored a consolation goal one minute into injury time when substitute Holman coolly found the bottom left corner from Conor Wilkinson’s through ball.
Solihull are next in action against Aldershot Town on Tuesday, February 25 with kick-off at 7.45pm at the EBB Stadium.
