NCEL: ‘Silly mistakes’ cost Knaresborough Town dear

Teenager Mitchell Hamilton gave Knaresborough the lead after 18 minutes but Davey’s side went in at half time trailing after two defensive errors gave Selby the advantage.

Hamilton grabbed Town’s equaliser, and his seventh goal in five games for his new club, after the break but more defensive mistakes saw Selby snatch two goals as Davey’s side left empty handed.

Davey blamed the ‘massive errors’ for his side’s defeat but also said that his experienced players were struggling to settle back into the team after returning from injury.

He said: “The younger players are the ones who are performing better at the moment because they’re playing with no fear. The more experienced players aren’t used to failure.

“They’ve only known constant success but we came into this season on the back of a bad run. When you need experienced heads to stand up we have just not got that at the moment.

“Without the young lads like Mitch and Matthew Pascal I don’t know where we would be. Mitch is playing out of his skin but he must be thinking ‘what have I come to?’.

“Some of the experienced players are not fully fit yet because they’re just coming back from injury. However, we can’t afford to leave them out because we’re low on numbers.”

Davey said he refused to blame players for individual defensive errors but insisted his side must work harder to protect their clean sheets,

He said: “None of their goals were fantastic and they all came from massive errors.

“It’s what happens when you are in a rut and mistakes start to go against you.

“We start to play good attacking football but everyone is nervous and passes start to get misplaced. That leads to more mistakes and everyone gets a bit more nervous. It’s a disaster waiting to happen”

Knaresborough Town travel to Lincoln Moorlands Railway on Saturday for their fourth away match on the run, but Davey said his side have not been affected by a spell away from Manse Lane.

He said: “The away games have not been a factor. We came in full of confidence last night after a draw and a win from our last two away games.”

Goals from Hamilton and George Eustance gave Davey’s side a two goal lead at Louth Town on Saturday but the home side rallied to a draw,

Davey said; “It was a good away point. We knew it would be a difficult game. I don’t think we played well enough in the second half to warrant a win but we did let it slip a little bit.”