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Frustrated Wanderers boss Ian Evatt said his side only had themselves to blame for defeat at Shrewsbury Town.
Leading 2-1 with 11 minutes to go, the Whites threw their lead away in the latter stages, shipping two goals from set pieces for Christian Saydee and Chey Dunkley.
Despite missing several players through illness and injury, the Whites had put themselves into a strong position with Dion Charles equalising Rob Street’s second-minute effort, then putting them a goal up from the penalty spot.
“For 75 minutes we were in complete control, got ahead deservedly, it was all us,” Evatt said after the game. “And then we don’t do the basics from a set piece. We should have stopped the cross coming in to start with and we knew how good they were from set pieces, we’d spoken about it during the week.
“That really changed the momentum in the game from that point. For whatever reason – whether we were tired and fatigued but we lost our belief in what we were doing. We stopped playing out from the back and went more direct, which played into their hands, they like to play in transition. They are physical at the back and want to win first contacts, put the ball into good areas, and we just didn’t deal with it well enough.
“The weight of pressure gets them another set piece and then we don’t do our jobs well enough again.
“It hurts, to be honest. It is a game we should never have lost.”
Charles had another penalty appeal turned down shortly after his second as Tom Flanagan appeared to bundle him to the floor.
Evatt had not reviewed the incident but says his striker was adamant referee Craig Hicks should have awarded the spot kick.
“That isn’t why we lost the game, we lost it because we didn’t do the basics well enough,” he countered.
“If you come to places like this and don’t do the basics for 90 minutes – not 75 – you get your nose bloodied and that is what has happened in the last 10 minutes of the game.
“Everyone knew they were dangerous from set pieces and if you switch off against these teams and don’t do your job man to man, be aggressive with how you do it, then you get hurt.
“We wouldn’t have conceded those corners if we would have just carried on doing what we were doing. It was working, it was good, we had control and they offered no threat.
“We for whatever reason lost our composure and discipline. We went too safe. We lost a game we should never have lost.”
With defensive talisman Ricardo Santos out of commission, Eoin Toal was named at the heart of defence. Evatt made five changes to the side that drew against Bristol Rovers last time out, chiefly because of a wave of illness that has swept across the training ground this week.
“I think Toal has been great since he came in, to be honest. It is not just that we are missing Ricardo,” the manager explained.
“This week has been a real test. Half that team are under the weather, we have five or six at home who are really ill – viruses and bugs – we had a few out with contact injuries.
“We had Jon on the bench. He put himself forward with a nose that has been smashed to pieces and will be operated on this Monday.
“We got ourselves into such a good position but we lost the game because we stopped doing what we are doing.”
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