Gary reacts to bank holiday games

Greensnet Editor
Tue 01 Sep 2015, 19:04

Hendon manager Gary McCann was very frustrated after the two defeats over the Bank Holiday weekend.

"They say a week is a long time in football," he said, "well, our week has been a very long one. We lost three times and I don't think we deserved to lose any of them, but we didn't do enough to gain three points in any of them either.

"The discipline issue is a real problem at the moment. Dissent is completely unacceptable and we already have a punishment system in place for dissent cautions, but it does not seem to be enough. We will be addressing this as a matter of urgency.

"The two red cards we have had this season have both been the result of players being frustrated, and there is no excuse for them either. The first one, for Aaron Morgan against Enfield Town, was very thoughtless, but the one for Sam Murphy on Saturday was even worse.

"We have to find the balance between aggression and going too far, but we also have to be much cuter in those moments. I thought the foul on Sam might have been a red card offence, but his retaliation - although it was only a push - did see him raise his hands and that is an automatic red card, so I have no complaints about it. I do think the Leiston player over-reacted, but that is not the point.

"Scott Shulton has got a golf-ball-sized lump on his shin as a result of the challenge on him, but he should not have complained in the way that he did.

"I thought that, until Sam got sent off, we were going to get something out of the game at Leiston. I wasn#t sure we would win the game, but we could easily have got a point as we were on top. Once we were down to 10 men, it was a different matter.

"As for the game against Harrow Borough, we spoke in the dressing room before the game about our discipline and it was much better. Unfortunately, in the match we were lacking in attack and I don’t think we made their goalkeeper work once in the game.

"The penalty was very unfortunate. The ball came off Russell Short's head and hit Dave Diedhiou on the arm a yard behind him.

"It was one of those handballs that you see given and not given as often as each other. When things are going your way, the decision would not be a penalty, but where we are at, at the moment, the penalty was given.

"Another example of the way things have been going for us recently is the injury that Ollie Sprague picked up in the warm-up yesterday. He had to drop out at the last moment, so Mark Kirby came into the side and Dave Diedhiou had to move to play at left-back, which was far from ideal.

"We are going to continue to work hard and, in no shape or form, feel sorry for ourselves . We will have more players back available for our next match on Saturday so competition for places will be at a premium."