MATT Clarke is ‘looking forward to the challenge’ after Redditch United suffered a disappointing 3-1 defeat away at Royston Town in his second game back at the helm.
Goals from Kian Harness, Archibald Locke and Luke Johnson put Royston in command before Jack Kelly netted a consolation for the Reds in injury time at Garden Walk.
The result leaves Redditch fourth in the Southern League Premier Central table and Clarke admits there is plenty of work to do ahead of hosting Spalding United this weekend.
Clarke said: “No excuses, Royston were head and shoulders the better team all over the park, they were a lot better than us and fully deserved to win the game.
“We didn’t pass the ball well enough, as a former defender the last thing I want is to concede from set-plays.
“We had a bit of a go for the last 15 minutes but it’s really easy to do that when you go three-nil down.
“Overall it was a really poor performance and highlights there’s a lot of work that needs to be done.
“We’re looking forward to the challenge and hopefully we can put this right.
“Spalding is a really difficult game, they’re very cash rich, they have a very wealthy chairman and they’re in a false position.
“It’s a different world to us but hopefully we can improve, we need a reaction and hopefully we can get a couple more in the building to give the boys a little bit of help.”
Royston broke the deadlock on 24 minutes when Harness finished at the back post after United failed to deal with a corner from the left.
The home side doubled their lead on 66 minutes as Locke headed in from six-yards out following a short corner.
And Town sealed the points on 78 minutes when Johnson touched the ball beyond Ryan Inman and coolly found the bottom left corner.
The Reds grabbed a consolation goal three minutes into injury time when Kelly cut inside of a sliding Royston defender and confidently finished into the bottom right corner.
Redditch host Spalding on Saturday, November 30 with kick-off at 3pm at the Valley Stadium.
