JAMES Fry feels his team are ‘not far away’ after Alvechurch were knocked out of the FA Trophy following a 1-0 home defeat against divisional rivals Coalville Town.
Joe Doyle-Charles scored the game’s only goal shortly before half time while Ben Cassidy hit the post for Church in the second period at Lye Meadow.
After suffering a first home defeat of the season, Alvechurch boss Fry insists his side must remain calm in front of goal to turn narrow defeats into positive results.
Fry said: “We were pleased with the performance, Coalville are a very good team at our level, they’ll be up there in the league at the end of the season.
“There are moments where we can be better in the final third and test their goalkeeper more but overall I’m not disappointed with the performance.
“There’s one moment in the game where we don’t execute the out of possession job that we’re meant to do and ultimately at this level that might be all the opponents need.
“We didn’t let the goal shift the momentum in the game, we were by far the better team in the second half, we now need to start affecting their goalkeeper more.
“It’s just about not panicking [in front of goal], it’s coming together, we’re getting into good areas, we’re not that far away.
“We have to come with the same mentality, that’s the biggest thing, the boys’ mentality each week has been really good and it’s been building as well.”
Alvechurch felt they should have had a penalty in the opening minute of the game after Alex Dean appeared to clip the heels of home striker Mikey Taylor in the box.
At the other end, Coalville spurned a number of chances to take the lead as a header from a corner drifted narrowly wide of the post.
Church responded with a chance of their own as Coalville goalkeeper Paul White acrobatically pushed Jack Concannon’s dangerous cross to safety.
However, the visitors broke the deadlock on 43 minutes when Doyle-Charles headed home from close range from Eliot Putman’s cross.
Church almost drew level just before the break when Concannon’s excellent free-kick took a flick off a Coalville head and went narrowly wide of the post.
The visitors went close to a second goal after the interval as Brad Foster made a crucial save to keep out an effort from point blank range at the back post.
Church went closest to an equaliser when Cassidy curled a short against the right-hand post from just inside the penalty area after a superb driving run from Cameron Eubank.
Alvechurch host Coalville in the league this weekend on Saturday, November 4 with kick-off at 3pm at Lye Meadow.
