Dennis Kutrieb said the defending that led to Havant & Waterlooville’s goals on Saturday felt like own goals.
Fleet were guilty of surrendering possession in the build-up to the second and third goals, while the opener was avoidable said the manager.
“That was very sloppy,” he said. “It’s a little bit like an own goal when you see the second goal, when you see the third goal. That’s not enough for our expectations and what we want to see from the boys
“In a few different areas we had good situations but over the 90 minutes, that’s not enough. When we talk about the defence, you have to defend better. The first goal was a set piece and [they scored from] the second ball after the set piece so we have to be more careful and we can’t concede such easy goals.
“But we talked about that in the last weeks as well. We work on it all day long, we want to make it better. That’s a matter of fact, that’s normal because every one of the boys wants to get better and they want to make it better. You can see it, they’re frustrated and I’m really disappointed for them. It’s always hard when you come back after two weeks, have had a good training week and then you come down [to earth] and get a big loss with a 3-0 result.”
Kutrieb paid the visitors a compliment, too, with Havant’s clinical finishing enough to nose them ahead where Fleet’s chances came and went.
“We played against a good team so they want to be successful this season, you can see they were sharper than us,” said the Fleet manager. “They could go for 90 minutes and they deserved the win today, it’s well deserved and we have to keep going for the Tuesday game, it’s only three days [away]. Their goalkeeper had a really good game for them today, making two or three great saves.
“And when you have a little bit more luck, perhaps you score the first after five minutes – from Raks [Bingham] in the six-yard box alone, he has to score a goal.
“It’s a little bit unlucky but in football when you’re not successful and you don’t get the results you want, you have to work hard. We did it this week, and we will do it next week as well until we get the results we want. That’s the only thing you can do. And when you work harder, all day long, you will get the success you want.”
Fleet’s next test is the third meeting with Chippenham Town in Tuesday night’s Buildbase FA Trophy and Kutrieb has told his players this is an opportunity to put their last two games behind them.
“I told them we have to keep our heads up because on Tuesday it’s the next game, it’s another competition. Perhaps we can score the goals to get a little bit more confidence because you can see in our front line at the moment, it’s only a head problem. When they score one goal, perhaps they score two or three.
“I’m happy we can go in three days again because when you lose a game you want to make it better. Then the next game is good for the boys, that they can go in three days time and be better than today. And that’s good for me as well.”
