Newark Town manager Luke Parsons says team’s defending was ‘nursery’ instead of ‘schoolboy’ after letting 2-0 lead slip to nine-man Wisbech
Newark Town manager Luke Parsons may have coined a new phrase in football after his side conceded an injury-time equaliser against nine men.
The Blues let slip a 2-0 lead at Wisbech on Saturday having been cruising to victory before the hosts received the first of two red cards.
Their opponents pulled a goal back with 10 men and an equaliser followed in the second minute of added time after Newark failed to clear their lines.
“I’m not even going to say it’s schoolboy defending,” said Parsons. “It’s worse than schoolboy - it’s nursery stuff.
“It’s poor marking, we’ve got two extra men in the box, we’ve misjudged the first header, missed the clearance and we’ve gone to clear with the wrong foot and they’ve toe-poked it in.
“You’ve got to give them credit because they believed and we just thought the game was won.”
Newark moved up a place to fourth in United Counties League Premier Division North with the draw but should have had three points in the bag. They took charge with two goals in four minutes from Louis Czerwak and Ryan Smith at the start of the second half.
But rather than making the most of their numerical advantage, it had the opposite effect.
“It’s a disappointing one,” said Parsons. “For 85 minutes, we were in complete control.
“It was a really good away performance and then it’s almost as if the first red card killed us.
“I don’t know if it’s a mentality thing or what.
“Their first goal was a bit lucky, it’s come in the box three times, we’ve cleared it three times, it’s been recycled and it’s a good finish from the lad, to be fair.
“Once they got one, with 10 men, your tails are always going to be up and you think you might be able to get something and it became more nervy and panicky for us.
“I thought we weathered the storm after that and then they got another red card and went down to nine.
“With 11 v 9, you should just be able to see the game out.
“It’s not very often I blow my lid, because I’m quite level-headed and always look for the positives, but we can’t be doing that against nine men. You’ve got to see the game out.
“We didn’t keep the ball, we didn’t use the two-man advantage, we just kept getting rid of the ball.
“If you use the extra men and keep the ball, eventually gaps will open but we kept panicking and booting it upfield. For them they had nothing to lose so they threw the kitchen sink and we panicked.”