Weston Bears coach Steve Piggott has described Saturday's 2-1 loss to bottom side Lake Macquarie as the worst performance by a side he has coached in 30 years.
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Piggott’s stinging criticism comes just two week’s after his side beat top-four side and Coalfields rivals Maitland 3-2 in what was probably their best performance in three seasons.
“Very disappointing. Worst display of football by a team I have coached in 30 seasons,” was Piggott’s frank assessment yesterday of his side’s performance at Macquarie Field on Saturday.
“I’ve got to say it looked like we gave in and that’s hard for a coach to say.
“I’ve been in charge of many teams and they’ve never put on a performance like that.
Even some of my better players that have been in fair form had ordinary days. Some of the younger players, who are inexperienced, couldn’t play much worse.
“Once the goal, a deflected shot, went in against us we lost all confidence, lost all ability to do the simple things well or get them half right. Poor passing, poor decision making, simply giving the ball away, being in the wrong position defensively.”
The Bears went into the game as favourites despite missing Cooper Buswell, Josh Maguire, Max Foster, and Kew Jaliens.
“On a given day in this competition anything can happen. If you’re not up for it , the other team has only got to be marginally better,” Piggott said.
“Lakes hadn’t won for five weeks. They had scored one goal in five rounds, but they got the first goal and we took a long time to equalise and then gave them another back.
“Hat’s off to them they got the three points.
“No excuses we had four players unavailable from the last game, no Buswell, no Maguire, no Foster, no Garlett but that doesn’t mean you don’t work hard and try to get things right.”
The Bears have a tough road ahead with games against top four sides Lambton, Broadmeadow and Edgeworth in the next three weeks.
“We’ll have to start again at training this week and find some solutions and something to move forward on as we play three tough matches in a row, all top four sides,” Piggott said.
“I know the players are frustrated and disappointed, but they’ve got to look at themselves.
“Some of the instructions I gave them before the match and information I don’t think some of the players even took it in. The mental side of the game is vital, some of them just didn’t turn up mentally.”
