We are ninth in the table and have had too many draws, admits Phoenix Sports boss Paul Bryon

PHOENIX SPORTS manager Paul Bryon says he wasn’t happy with his side’s performance at Whyteleafe last weekend.

 

The club went down to a 2-0 defeat at Church Road and as a result are in ninth-place in the Bostik South East Division table with 29 points from 21 games.

Harry Hudson’s side, meanwhile, occupy the final play-off berth in fifth-place with 38 points and Bryon admitted: “Last week we weren’t good enough and the result showed this.

“There has only been two games this season where our performance for 90 minutes was completely below par. Last week and away at Hastings earlier on in the season.

“We looked lacklustre and our ball retention was poor which is completely out of character.

“We have to be realistic and understand that these days do happen in football and it’s hard to be too harsh on the players as they have been in every game this season other than the two that I have mentioned.  

“We have competed in each game which is a massive positive for me. It’s only the third league game we have not scored in and two of those were again the two I have already mentioned.”

Phoenix Sports had central midfielder Zak Bryon and centre-half sent off, while Whyteleafe substitute Laurent Mendy also saw red.  

“I had a full squad to choose from last week and was looking forward to the competition for places, but we had two reds on Saturday and another player unavailable this week so that has now changed,” added Bryon.

“The two reds were silly and completely unnecessary and we need to learn form those moments of ill-discipline. I am not really moaning about the decisions as the first was coming and the lad should have shown more sense in a game that was almost over.

“The second was a coming together and the ref sent one of from each side when yellow would have been sensible both ways.

“It means we will have to call on a couple of ressies for Saturday which is what they are there for and I have no problem with bringing them in when needed.”

Sittingbourne are the visitors on Saturday and Chris Lynch has lost all of his first three games in charge of the club.

The Brickies lost 4-0 at Ramsgate in his first game, while VCD Athletic and Haywards Heath Town both came away from Woodstock Park with 2-1 wins.

“We have Sittingbourne at home, which will be a tough test with new management and quite a few new signings,” said Bryon.

“We drew 1-1 at their place after dominating and missing chances they got an equaliser in the last two minutes.

“We are ninth in the table and have had too many draws, in all honesty I would have been happy with the amount of games lost maybe one less but it’s the draws that have hurt us.

“It’s difficult to predict what will happen as so many clubs sign new players each week that a lot of the time you don’t know how strong teams will be if you have not played them for a while. If you have had them watched they may have added one or two since then so it can be misleading.

“We will keep going give it our all and see where we end up.”

Visit Phoenix Sports website: www.phoenixsportsclub.co.uk

Phoenix Sports  v  Sittingbourne
Bostik South East Division
Saturday 2 February 2019
Kick Off 3:00pm
at Mayplace Road East, Barnehurst, Kent DA7 6JT