Frustrated Town boss McGrath says Shaymen were "rubbish" in defeat at Aldershot

Town suffered their fourth league defeat of the season thanks to substitute Marcus Wyllie's late winner.

"When you set the bar on Tuesday night, at home against Hartlepool, and then the bar drops not just a little but but it dropped massively today, I thought it was rubbish," McGrath told the Courier.

"There's a few more words I could use instead of that but we were off it, physically our intensity was down, our decision-making was terrible, we didn't know when to play and when to go long into Morgs and Conor.

"And I think the most disappointing thing for me is it's on the back of a poor performance against Altrincham, then the high against Hartlepool, and now we're down again.

"I'm not making excuses for the lads, I'm not having them tell me they're a young group because they've all played enough games now of men's football to get consistency under their belts, and we've got a good enough squad to get consistency.

"I thought that was a game where if we'd played anywhere near our intensity, we could and probably should have nicked something.

"That being said, I'd have been disappointed coming away with a draw, if we'd nicked a draw, because I didn't think we deserved much from the game."

McGrath admitted it was "massively frustrating" coming after the high of the midweek win over Hartlepool.

"The lads all know the answers to the problems Aldershot caused, and they all know the answers to why we lost the game, but it's now trying to get those problems solved on the pitch," he said.

"If you look at the goal we conceded, it's just schoolboy football, and that's where we've got to sit down with them, we've got to go through the goal, go through the build-up to the goal.

"But there's a lot for me to delve into and watch back, and try to take some positives from it."

When asked if he felt his team had done enough to deserve anything out of the match, McGrath said: "I think we probably did, if you look at Hugill's one-on-one in the first-half, Morgs has a chance, Tolls, the keeper makes a good save, albeit it's straight at him.

"So yeah, I think we did. To be honest, it wasn't a great game of football and that's just me commenting on my boys, but we probably did enough to draw.

"But that's not good enough for me. I set standards for the boys and the standard today, whether we thought we should nick something or not, is not good enough."

The result marks one step back for The Shaymen after taking one step forward against Hartlepool.

"It's been like a Jekyll and Hyde start to the season, it's been up and down," McGrath admitted.

"We need to gain some consistency because at the end of the season, I don't want us to look back and go 'remember that poor performance we had at Aldershot, remember that poor performance we had at Altrincham?'

"I can accept the odd game in eight or nine being poor but what I can't accept is it being up and down, game after game after game."

McGrath kept the same side from the Hartlepool game, but admits that may have to change after today's performance.

"I've always said, if you play well, apart from me trying to rest you or an injury, you should maintain your performances to play 40-plus games a season," he said.

"And today, maybe True Grant, penalty save, and he didn't have a great deal to do. But apart from that, there's very little or no positives to be taken from it."

The Town boss said captain Cody Johnson was taken off shortly before half-time after escaping a second yellow card.

"I was worried when (the ref) reached to his back pocket, but he was reaching for his spray.

"It was just purely precautionary," he said.

McGrath confirmed that winger Owen Bray missed the game following a bereavement.

The Town boss says Mackenzie Maltby will be back training next week, but AJ Warburton is around seven to ten days away from a return.

On winger Arian Allen, who is in line to feature in the National League Cup next week, McGrath said: "He played 45 yesterday for Stockport's under 21s in a behind-closed-doors game, which was always the plan for him."