Dennis Kutrieb was left displeased with his side’s second-half performance, off the back of seeing their 2-0 half-hour lead disappear.
Speaking after the full-time whistle, the Fleet manager believed his side’s focus was found wanting and that perhaps they’d thought 2-0 was enough.
“It was too easy,” he said (see video interview below). “We started really well but after the 2-1 we lost the game. We lost our heads, we lost the focus. I felt we were not strong enough today to win it.
“Of course we expected other things. The way we started, it was a good game until 2-1 but after that it was a really weak performance.
“We didn’t create enough, only one or two chances [in the second half] but that’s not the point today. I think it was more the mindset, to get back the focus.”
And on the swift 2-0 lead Fleet built up with two goals in six minutes, Kutrieb suggested: “You lead 2-0, perhaps some of the boys thought they’ll win the game and it’s an easy game but it’s never easy. You have to play 90 minutes when you see the opponent fight.
“It could be that was the problem today. When you get a 2-0 lead so quickly and play a really good game until this time then it’s hard for the boys if they feel the opponent is there [for the taking] and then they come back into the game. They did it really well, they fight back for the equaliser and from then, they played the game, not us.
“They put up a really good fight – they came back with the 2-1, they came back with the 2-2. We tried to focus [our players] in the half-time but as you can see in the second-half, we were not strong enough today.
“We were trying the whole time to get back in the game but as I said, it was not enough.
“[St Albans] defended really well, we had two or three chances but we didn’t play the game we wanted to play. But you can feel on the pitch the boys didn’t have enough confidence in the second half to play their game. Otherwise we would have created more chances… but they defended really well and deserved to win today.”
Fleet have a rest in midweek now having played Saturday/Tuesday since the start of the month. Kutrieb has stated he is more than happy with playing two games a week after the long close-season break but will use the week away from matches to sharpen his players ahead of the visit of high-flying Hungerford Town.
“Perhaps it could be a good week for us, more training sessions to work on the details,” he said. “But as you can see, especially in the second half, we need to have the basics all over the pitch. We need to fight, to win our one v ones – their strikers gave us headaches today. We were too weak in our centre-backs so we have to adapt quicker or every opponent will beat us. They fight for the win so we have to fight as well.”
