By Ben Thomas
COACH Maitreyan Joshi expressed his extreme disappointment with his USW 4th team’s defending at set-pieces after a 4-3 defeat to Gloucester left them staring at relegation.
USW let slip a 3-1 lead in the second half to go down 4-3 – even though for the final 20 minutes they were up against 10 men after a Gloucester red card.
Joshi said: “I think we controlled the game in large parts, and we began both halves very strongly. We just had to protect a 3-1 lead for 20 minutes.
“It’s just the same thing again, we concede on set pieces and then conceded a goal which was obviously miles offside.
“It was up to us boys to stop the opposition from continuing to play. However, it’s the story of the season.
“To let a lead like that slip is hard.
“We were in complete control, so I don’t think we could’ve done much apart from defending the set pieces and getting man to man.
“We haven’t defended them all season and like again today, it has cost us a massive win.”
When asked if he thinks his team could bounce back from such a devastating blow, Joshi responded: “Well, it all depends on training.
“We will put 100% effort into training, and we won’t give up. We never give up.
“If Hartpury lose to Cardiff, then we still have a huge chance of survival. We will put in a good shift and hope things go in our favour.”