Clipstone boss blasts '˜worst performance I've seen'
Manager Jamie Hardwick branded it 'the worst performance I have seen' as Clipstone's recent improvement in form counted for nothing on a day to forget.
The bottom-of-the-table Cobras were hammered 6-0 in the Toolstation Northern Counties East League’s Premier Division by fellow strugglers Thackley, with all the goals coming in the opening half when they were overrun.
Hardwick said: “Since taking over, I have seen progression each week, even if the results haven’t come. But after a lively start, we conceded in the first 15 minutes because of numerous errors. We were a little better in the second half, but it was a very poor performance, with no hard work or desire to compete.”
It was Clipstone’s 30th defeat of a nightmare season that has seen them pick up just one point. And yet hopes had been high at the start of the match. The Cobras had shown plenty of promise against third-placed Pontefract Collieries in midweek, despite going down 3-0, while Thackley seemed ripe for the taking, having won just once in 2018.
However, they gifted the Yorkshire side all six goals in that awful first half, starting with failure to clear a 12th minute corner that enabled Mike Garrod to score the first goal of a hat-trick.
Luke Robinson struck twice, on 22 and 29 minutes, either side of a close-range header from Jordan Hines, and the half finished with two more for Garrod, a speculative cross-cum-shot that deceived ‘keeper Warren Squires and a penalty.