FOOTBALL: MOORS boss Liam McDonald shared the frustration of his players after they conceded in the dying minutes of Saturday’s home game against Dagenham and Redbridge, writes Luke Turner.
Goals from skipper Darren Carter and Oladapo Afolayan looked to have secured all three points for the Moors.
But Jake Howells scored directly from a corner as the game ended 2-2 – something McDonald admits was cruel on his men.
He said: “I’m gutted for the players, I said that at the end. Sometimes football can be a cruel game and it was cruel today. I thought we’d see that corner out and it’s three points for us against a team that are third in the league.
“This is the strongest 11 we’ve had out this season and we’ve been criticised this season, but I said to the players today – ‘go out and show them how good we are’.
“For large parts of the game we were very good, we were solid in our shape and that’s probably through having that extra day of training because of not having a midweek game.
“It’s just a hard one to take. We need to move on from it because it’s a point on the board and it’s a very good point against Dagenham who are looking to win the league.”
After a busy schedule over the last few weeks, McDonald highlighted the importance at having a free week to plan and prepare for upcoming fixtures.
“We’ve got to look forward to Saturday now and we’ll have another good week. It makes the world of difference having that extra day rather than a midweek game,” said McDonald.
“It’s paid dividends today. We’ve played out from the back at times, we’ve gone into Brodie at times, we’ve got Dapo (Afolayan) in good positions, Wes McDonald in good positions – we were unlucky today not to win the game and that’s a fact.”
Richard Brodie and Joe Payne both made their debuts for the club after signing earlier in the week and immediately made a positive impression on their manager, while Simeon Maye’s return from injury was another welcome boost.
The gaffer said: “I thought Brodie was outstanding for 65 minutes, he’s going to tire but he and Dapo did really well together.
““It’s great for Simeon to come back as well because we’ve been missing him and Payne at left-back has been very good. It gives us balance and we’ve been searching for a left-back for a few months now and they’re expensive but we searched the loan market.”
Next up for Solihull is another difficult test away at Dover, but McDonald insists that his players will be up for the challenge.
He said: “Dover will be a similar game to Saturday. We’ll be playing a team again that are up there near top of the league so it’s going to be another tough game.
“It will give me an indication of where we’re at. If it weren’t for a bit of luck, we’d have six more points and it’s hard for the lads.
“There are some disappointed people in the dressing room but I’ll pick them up and we’ll be ready to go next week.”
