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The overall performance against Matlock was poor, and we seemed to be lethargic from start to finish. Once you start a game in that manner, it’s difficult to shake it off.

Unfortunately the only other time that we have produced that kind of performance this season was in another cup game against Hinckley 3 weeks ago. On that occasion we had just come off a high energy game at Farnborough, but Saturday we should have been fresh from the word go, so it is incredibly disappointing to produce a performance like that which has resulted in us going out of a major cup competition.

I watched Matlock in the week at Ilkeston, so I knew what to expect. They also did their homework on us and made our task difficult because they swamped midfield, and it made us difficult to get any decent quality balls to our front men. In addition, a lot of our attacking threat this season has come from the wing, especially down the left hand side, and both Ash Fuller and James Krause disappointed in that respect, especially during the first half.

As a result, I made the decision to replace Ash at half time. I also took Steve Gentle off as he was struggling with an ankle injury.

Bringing Neil Midgley on livened us up a bit at the beginning of the second period, but we lost any momentum we had with their goal. The challenge that lead to the free kick was one of those that on another day you get away with, but we were un-done with the set piece on two fronts as Zac Barrett anticipated wrongly and the two-man wall that was in place split as the ball came in, so it wasn’t the best from our point of view.

That said, we tried to get back in the game, but our rhythm went either through injuries to our personnel or in the sense that our fluency went as Matlock were first to everything, and we just couldn’t find a way through. On the day, Matlock were stronger than us in key areas and out muscled us, which effectively left us feeding off scraps a lot of the time.

Although it’s disappointing to go out, and we know it was uncharacteristic performance from us, we also have to give credit to Matlock. They played well, and as we know, not many teams have come to Milton Road this season and come away with anything.

With an out of sorts performance like we witnessed, it’s difficult to extract positives, but if you are looking for one, I thought Tony Burke again played well, and we should all be excited at what he can bring to the team.

In terms of injuries, we haven’t come through un-scathed. The positive is that although Lee Chaffey got injured during the game, he should be OK, but unfortunately has he picked up a yellow card so he will be suspended for the game against Leamington in a fortnight. Matt Haniver is also injured and will be out for 2 to 3 weeks, and Steve Gentle is out for 2 weeks with a knock to his ankle, so in a fortnight we will be without all of those 3 key players.

Before the Leamington game we have the trip to Bashley. As we know, they are a different proposition than last season, and doing well and I’m expecting nothing more than a tough game from them. They have signed 3 or 4 good players, have pace up front, and we need to be on our guard.

The players will be training hard this week, and I’ve told them that we have to move on from Saturday, and get it out of their system and focus on getting back to resuming our impressive form in the league.