Hereford United 2, Darlington 1
Nov 2 2009 by Ray Simpson, The Journal
DARLINGTON manager Steve Staunton will put his players through their defensive paces once again this week as he tries to stop Quakers’ slide towards relegation.
Sloppy defending again cost Quakers a point at Edgar Street on Saturday, and because of results going against them elsewhere, they are now nine points adrift of safety.
Quakers have yet to keep a clean sheet in the league this season, and it was easy to see why as Hereford didn’t have to work too hard to score their goals.
“We gave away two very soft goals,” said Staunton, who has seen Quakers lose three times away from home since he took over a month ago.
“For the first goal, two experienced players dived in, and the second one was even worse because nobody competed for the ball when it went into our box, and then nobody reacted.
“I can’t blame our keeper, because he had a good game and pulled off some good saves, but the defence looked disjointed at times.
“There’s a going to be a lot of hard work done on our defending in training this week, because we must start keeping clean sheets.
“It was the same old story I’m afraid, we started the game well and finished it well, but it was all over in between. We seem to give ourselves an uphill battle every week.”
Quakers got off to a promising start, and had two good chances to take the lead before the tenth minute, but first Simon Thomas hooked the ball over the bar from a few yards, and then James Collins saw a low shot saved.
