By Ben Thomas
USW men’s 1sts head coach Adrian Harvey believes his side must show more desire if they are to turn around their poor start to the season.
It was a difficult day for Harvey’s team as they suffered a 3-0 defeat at home to University of Chichester, thanks to a first-half brace from Ria Dos Santos, and a second half strike from Ed Miloy.
The result sees USW remain bottom of the table after five games, having picked up only one point. Chichester rise to top of the league after today’s victory with 10 points, with the University of Exeter having a game in hand.
Harvey said: “We do a lot of preparation in terms of tactics, opposition analysis, our game-plan.
“What I said to the boys in there is, they’ve owned up to it, they haven’t shown that heart, desire, determination to build a foundation for us to play.”
The away side managed to frustrate USW, leading to four yellow cards, with the hosts possibly fortunate to escape the game without a dismissal.
Harvey added: “One of their (Chichester) strengths, is their togetherness, their unity and winding us up and taking us down to their level. We did at times today, which I was disappointed with.
Pic: Ben Thomas
“I’m really, really disappointed with the with the application, desire and determination that they showed, especially in the second half.”
The game was played in tough conditions, with the heavens opening throughout the game, but Harvey dismissed the suggestion the weather may have adversely affected his side.
Despite the poor start to the season, the 41-year-old believes that his team are showing the commitment to improve.
“They turn up every week, they turn up to training at 6am on a Monday and a Friday, they turn up to a game on a Wednesday whether it’s home or away,” he said.
“So they’re showing us the commitment.
“We do some really good stuff (in training), but we cannot transfer that to the game.
“I don’t know whether we go into our shell, whether its rabbit in the headlights stuff, but we’re not showing.
“I go back to that heart, desire, determination, energy to run, commitment, all of these basics to play football.”