Whitchurch Alport manager Luke Goddard was forthright in his post-match assessment after Saturday’s shock home defeat to Shelley in the Macron Cup.

The visitors deservedly won by the odd goal in five with Goddard describing his side’s performance as not being good enough.

He said: “I feel sorry for our supporters today but more for our amazing volunteers who have worked so hard for the last two or three weeks to get games on.

“Yes, you can lose games but we’ve gone out with a whimper today and that’s the most disappointing thing. I have always strived to put a team on the pitch that represents this football club the way our supporters deserve.

“We haven’t done that today but we’ve learned a lot and although it hurts now, I’m glad in a way that it has happened here in a cup tie and not in a vital league game.”

The match ebbed and flowed throughout and the Reds chief accepted it was a great game for any neutral.

“It was an end-to-end encounter which had five goals and the sending off, and the lead changing hands a few times,” he added.

“But let’s be honest, we’ve made it into a game through poor defending. If we had defended properly, we win the game 2–0 but that would have only papered over the cracks.

“That’s been coming for a couple of weeks and it’s my job to make changes when necessary and I’ll do that.”

Alport’s midfield general Dan Skelton received a straight red card from the match official which left the Reds with 10 men for the last half hour.

The manager was less than impressed with the referee’s decision.

Goddard said: “I’ve watched the game from the stand today and had a really good view of the incident.

“It was harsh and I thought the referee had a poor game today. Thankfully, we have a video camera on the far side and we’ll review it to try and get it rescinded.

“Today’s game has gone, but we might be missing Dan now for three games and that would really impact us.

“Then, once we go down to 10, we didn’t show any fight or any hunger and they showed more quality than us.

“We’ve not been ruthless in both boxes and I’ve been saying that for the past two or three games.

“Earlier in the season, we were really tight defensively, but we’ve conceded four, two and three goals in our last three matches.

“We have to get back to basics and do the ugly stuff.”

The pitch was really heavy, but Goddard gave an insight into the amount of work that went into getting the game on.

“We had no chance today, but we’ve worked tirelessly for hours because we want to play matches,” he said.

“Over a ton-and-a-half of sand was brushed onto the pitch this morning and it’s such a credit to some of our volunteers who defied the odds to get a game on.

“Like I said earlier, it’s those people that I feel most sorry for when our lads weren’t at it – the hard work they put in didn’t get the reward they deserved.”

Alport return to league action this weekend when they face a trip to Ashton Athletic. It’s the first of two away games with a tricky midweek (Tuesday) test at Rylands.