CARL ADAMS has told his Stratford Town players they need to be more clinical to turn performances into points.
The Town manager admits he was happier with the display in the midweek Southern Premier defeat at Merthyr Town than he was with the point from last weekend’s draw with Royston Town.
Two goals in the final ten minutes sent Stratford to a 3-1 defeat in the Welsh valleys, to follow a 1-1 home draw with Royston.
But there were key moments in both games when Town had the chances to establish unassailable winning positions, only for the opportunities to go begging.
Adams is desperate to end Town’s struggles to string together a sequence of wins and says they need to be more ruthless, starting with their FA Trophy tie at home to Bedworth United tomorrow (Saturday).
“We played so well on Tuesday night – it was probably the best game we have played this season,” said Adams.
“But we missed so many sitters. We created chance after chance and the second half was totally one-way traffic.
“We are not clinical enough at the moment. Then it seems we are getting punished for the slightest mistake at the other end.
“You couldn’t say we are not scoring – Jazz Luckie and Mike Taylor have both got hat-tricks in the past couple of weeks and Ben Stephens has been scoring.
“But we are not finishing off teams when we have the chance.
“I’m sure that will turn. It will have to.”
Though the Martyrs opened the scoring on Tuesday through Ian Traylor on 19 minutes, former Merthyr player Dan Summerfield brought Town level with a great header from Lee Thomas’s cross on 37 minutes.
They should have then established a lead, only for Stephens to hit the bar and head wide, and Merthyr made the most of their reprieve for Kerry Morgan to net ten minutes from time.
As Stratford pushed for an equaliser, they were caught on the counter-attack in stoppage time for Eliot Richards to make it 3-1.
“It’s tough at the minute,” said Adams. “We’re not getting what we deserve. We’re better than the league position suggests.
“But I’m optimistic. I wasn’t happy with the performance against Royston and I made it clear it wasn’t good enough to the players afterwards.
“But they gave me a response against Merthyr. It was 100 times better than Saturday.”
