Boss Billy Heath frustrated by Alfreton Town's lack of progress

The Reds finally won their first game since early September at the weekend when they saw off basement boys Nuneateon 3-1.

But they were unable to build on that win leaving Heath to question his side’s game management skills.

“At the moment it’s small steps - we seem to be taking one step forward and two steps back,” he said.

“Obviously at home we should look to win the game and l think we did that - we looked to win the game - but we get ourselves in the game, we’re in a good position, we’ve been knocking on the door long enough and all you want to do is settle down, but we naively want to go and win the game straight away.

“l think we deserved more from the game, but it’s not what you deserve it’s what you come away with - l think possession wise we had more possession.

“We had more chances during the game, but it’s what the score says at the end of the night.

“The most disappointing thing of the whole night was the goals we conceded again - obviously against the run of play the first one’s poor and the second one was so.

“It is so poor after you’ve worked so hard to get back in the game and then just two minutes later we’re so naïve and wanted to win the game the next minute after we’d scored.

“We should know how to handle the game with the experienced players we have, but we kicked off and suddenly they touch the ball three times and it’s in the back of our net - it was naivety and we shouldn’t be naïve with the personnel we’ve got.”

Leamington took the lead with only their second meaningful attack just two minutes before the break, a towering Jack Edwards header finding the net from a Keiran Dunbar corner, that same combination having just failed nine minutes earlier from an identical situation.

It was a corner taken by sub Jordan Sinnott that finally allowed Alfreton to draw level nine minutes from time, skipper Luke Shiels glancing a delightful header beyond veteran keeper Tony Breeden.

But just two minutes later Leamington’s advantage was restored when Dunbar sprinted through unchallenged from a Connor Taylor pass to slot home with ease.