Fleet boss Daryl McMahon was left with a familiar feeling of deja vu, taking some small comfort in his side’s second-half performance but left disappointed by the result.
“I think it was a good performance today, we shouldn’t have lost the game,” he told BBC Radio Kent’s Ian Randall. “I think that performance didn’t merit a loss but we need to build on that – I’ve said that too many times this season about performances and we haven’t won. We need to start winning games very quickly. It was obviously very windy today but I thought both teams played the conditions quite well.”
Fleet hit the post at the beginning of the second half and had Solihull penned back for a spell, with the Fleet camp adamant they should also have had a penalty when Jack Payne’s searching pass for Dean Rance saw the latter impeded.
“The one on Rance, he definitely got in front of their lad and touched the ball forward and he didn’t get anywhere near the ball, their boy. And he’s clipped his heel,” said McMahon. “I thought we could go on and win it to be honest with the amount of chances we had in the second-half. Disappointed to concede the goal so late but we’ve had numerous chances again in the second half to put ourselves in the lead but we didn’t take them. Sean Shields’ shot could have put us 2-1 up at that stage, he’s a bright player, he came on and gave us something different.
“I thought we were very good [in that spell either side of the goal]. We hit the post, should have had a penalty, we had a couple of one v ones that I expect us to score but it happens and we have to get ready for next week now.”
Next week sees Fleet take a break from the league with Worthing – 3-1 winners at home to Kingstonian today – the visitors in the FA Cup. That gives McMahon’s side some respite from the National League and he believes that while his squad don’t lack confidence, they just need to string a couple of results together.
“Prize-money-wise, [the FA Cup] is massive this year and just for us to go home and put a performance on and try to get a win to kick-start us again, I think it’s important that we’re ready for that game now. I think you’ve seen in the performance, it was confident. We don’t lack any confidence, as a group we won’t do that. But a result backed up by another result will kick-start us and get us going.”
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