By Mark Carruthers
Spennymoor Town joint-manager Anthony Johnson insisted his side will improve after their 3-1 defeat at North East rivals Blyth Spartans.
The Moors fell behind to a first-half goal from JJ O'Donnell – but were the better of the two sides in the opening stages of the second-half.
Frank Mulhern and Glen Taylor both went close to grabbing an equaliser after the restart and it was the latter that finally got his side back on level-terms with a typically clinical finish on 56 minutes.
However, the Moors fell to their first defeat under Johnson and Bernard Morley as a Toby Lees header and a late strike from Connor Thomson gave their hosts all three points.
Johnson is adamant his side will improve in the near future as they look to find some form and challenge for a top seven place in the National League North.
He told The NLP: “When the chips are down and the muck has hit the fan, you need to look towards your leaders.
“Confidence is maybe a bit low at this point in time and we have to find a way of building that back up.
“When we do, I think we will see a good version of ourselves because, in the main, it's a group that is full of quality.
“It's lacking in terms of certain things on the pitch like balance and confidence – but we will improve.”
Johnson bemoaned deficiencies at both ends of the pitch during their defeat at Croft Park.
Both sides created a whole host of chances throughout an eventful 90 minutes – but it was Spartans that took the points as they showed a more clinical edge than their North East rivals.
Johnson warned his players their hopes of a play-off bid will come to an end unless they produce more consistency throughout games during the rest of the season.
“You can't miss that many chances in any game of football at any level and expect to win,”he explained.
“We created good opportunities through good play from us but if you can't take those chances and can't defend, you are going to end up mid-table in this division.
“That's the problem we have been stuck with throughout the season – a lack of consistency and performance in the game.
“We have a good ten minutes and then a dodgy ten minutes – you can't do that at this level because you get punished.
“I have to say I thought Blyth's game plan was fantastic, they punished us and they opened up a lot of cracks that we already knew were there.”
Next up for Spennymoor is another North East derby at Darlington on New Year's Day.
