PAUL WOTTON says Harriers must learn from their opening-day defeat at Hornchurch and show a response when Eastleigh visit Aggborough.
Three first-half goals left Harriers with too much to do on a disappointing afternoon, despite Wotton’s side having started brightly and created a good opportunity to take the lead.
The Manager was frustrated by his team’s reaction to falling behind but stressed that the issues can be rectified as attention turns to the first home game of the season.
“It was a very, very disappointing result and a very disappointing performance at certain times,” he said.
“Before they scored their first goal, I thought we looked a threat. We were front-footed and had a great chance to go 1-0 up, which we didn’t take.
“Then we didn’t do our job from a set-piece. The second one is a calamitous goal and, from then, I thought we went into our shells massively.
“I said we hadn’t had a punch on the nose in pre-season. We took one there and I don’t think we got over it. We didn’t respond properly to it.
“To go in 3-0 down at half-time, it’s pretty much game over.”
Wotton made three changes at the interval as Harriers attempted to find a route back into the contest, with some of those introduced bringing renewed energy to the performance.
One player singled out by Wotton was captain David Davis, whose determination throughout the afternoon earned the praise of his Manager.
“I don’t like picking out individuals, but I thought David Davis was phenomenal,” Wotton said.
“I thought he fought and fought and fought until the end. He was jumping higher and winning headers in our box that our centre-halves should be heading.
“I thought he was fantastic.”
While acknowledging there remains plenty of work ahead for his new-look squad, Wotton believes many of the problems evident at Hornchurch can be addressed on the training ground.
“We’ve got a lot to do, we know that, but there were certain things I didn’t like,” he admitted.
“They’re things that are easily rectified, definitely, so that’s a positive.
“There were things we worked on this week that we just didn’t take onto the pitch, so that’s the disappointing thing for us.
“It’s the first game and it’s not the way we wanted it to go. It’s bitterly disappointing, but we’ll bounce back.”
Harriers now have a full week to prepare for Eastleigh’s visit and their first Aggborough outing of the new campaign.
Wotton is determined not to allow the opening-day disappointment to linger, but insists the performance must be examined properly before focus shifts fully towards Saturday.
“You can’t carry it with you because it just eats into Monday’s training and you take it over the whole weekend,” he said.
“But it would be very remiss of me to say: ‘It’s done, let’s forget about it and move on.’ You have to learn from it.
“We’ll be watching the game back, that’s for sure. We have to learn.
“We’ve suffered disappointment and we’ll see how we react from it.
“The fans were terrific. They kept supporting the boys all the way through, but it wasn’t a good day for us.
“We’ve got a home game coming up, so we need to put this disappointment behind us, get back to work and keep working.”