Gloucester City suffered a heartbreaking 2-1 away defeat to inform Southport, which left City boss Mike Cook with a sickening feeling in his stomach.
The winning goal from Harry Flowers was the result of a 90th minute corner, with manager Cook expressing his disappointment for the manner in which the goal was conceded.
“As a manager I absolutely hate it, having worked on it all week in training and then concede from a set-piece is the really disappointing aspect to it. Makes me feel sick to be honest “
“I felt that they were no use in attack apart from set-pieces, if you look at the clock it wasn’t until the 91st minute that they scored so I’m pretty pleased in all honesty.” Cook said.
The loss condemns City to another defeat on the road and leave them with just a solitary victory from their opening 12 games this season.
Despite the defeat Cook remained positive about his sides performance.
“My Initial thoughts are that I’m quite pleased and quite proud of them as a group, there were some periods of the game that I thought we were superb, particularly in the second half.” Cook added.
“The few 10-15 minute spells we looked really really good, it gives us a bit of heart because we’re not bad on our day and we just need a bit of luck but that’s hard to come by.”
Cooks men currently sit 23rd in the table and three points from safety with the fans and owners beginning to feel a sense of worry, with a tricky string of fixtures up ahead.
“Patrick and Nicky (Chambers, the owners) and the fans are the ones who I feel sorry for, but the good short spells we had can give us some confidence to show that we’re moving in the right direction.”
“The supporters were amazing, never stopped singing and their support for the players was fantastic, I acknowledged them and gave them a wave at times and they can see the effort of the players which is really positive.”
Injuries have been a really damaging factor for Cook as well as previous manager Tim Flowers this season, although the City boss gave the fans something to like their lips over, with the hint of a few new faces joining his squad.
“Its not all doom and gloom, we have a young Brazilian lad Alefe Santos coming in from Poole town so he’ll be in on Tuesday and also Harry Leeson from Bristol City.”
“If we can get a couple more faces in then I’ll be happy because that can give us a lift and then we can start to get to work.”
A return to the TigerTurf Stadium on Saturday will give Cook the chance to gain his first victory of his second spell in charge against Alfreton Town who currently sit eighth in the table.
