JAMES Fry felt his Alvechurch side gave themselves ‘a mountain to climb’ following a 3-1 FA Cup defeat at Anstey Nomads.
Church fell behind inside the first minute before Dylan Hadley drew the visitors level only for Anstey strike either side of the break at Cropston Road to end Alvechurch’s FA Cup journey at the First Qualifying Round stage.
And Fry felt Alvechurch allowed Anstey to see out the game too easily in a below-par performance against the Northern Premier League Midlands side.
Fry said: “We gave ourselves a mountain to climb again, we started the game horrendously, we didn’t touch the ball and it was in the back of our net.
“We grew into the game and got back into the game after a really poor start and then we don’t touch the ball again and it’s in the back of our net.
“In those moments, I look to my senior players to make sure they get us through those little periods and we didn’t.
“The third goal killed any momentum we tried to whip up after half time and they saw it out a little too easily for my liking.
“The first two goals really worried me, it’s not what we’re missing, we need to stop that from happening.
“So far this season, we feel we should have had a few more points, the performances have been good.
“The performance was really poor against Anstey was really poor in a lot of areas, I’ll be asking for a reaction and the players have got to give a reaction now.
“It’s a mental thing more than technical or tactical thing, starting from me, we’ll need a reaction mentally to rectify things and start picking up points.”
Church made the worst possible start as Anstey broke the deadlock inside the first minute when Leo Brown turned home Drew Lowe’s cross from the left from close range.
The visitors equalised on 25 minutes when Hadley pounced on a mistake at the back to run clean through on goal and coolly finish through the legs of former Leicester City goalkeeper Conrad Logan.
However, Anstey reclaimed the lead straight from the restart as Kyle Tomlin finished from six-yards out after Zayne Hakeem saw his initial effort blocked.
Anstey stretched their lead five minutes after the break as James Tague curled a fine effort into the net via the underside of the crossbar from just inside the penalty area.
Alvechurch are next in action away at Hitchin Town on Saturday, September 7 with kick-off at 3pm at Top Field.
