AFC Sudbury manager Rick Andrews targets perfect 10 to see if Hashtag United crumble in title race
Rick Andrews has far from thrown in the towel on the title after a 3-2 defeat at leaders Hashtag United but feels they now have no room for error in their remaining 10 matches.
The Yellows will head into Saturday’s visit of third-bottom Hullbridge Sports (3pm) seven points adrift of The Tags in the race for the sole automatic promotion spot in the Pitching In Isthmian League North Division.
But with a game in hand to come, in a three-times weather rearranged fixture at his former club Stowmarket Town on Tuesday (7.45pm) he feels all is not lost yet.
“Obviously I am disappointed but we’ve got 10 games to go and we’ve got to dust ourselves off and just keep winning,” he said in the wake of Saturday’s dramatic game which had seen them come from 2-0 down with 10 men, following Josh Stokes’ 19th minute red card, to 2-2 before conceding a 78th minute winner to Greg Halford’s header.
“We need to win 10 games now and just see if they drop (points).
“Seven, if we win our game in hand, becomes four and we’ve got very winnable games, although difficult ones.
“They’ve got a couple of tough ones, you just don’t know.”
Hashtag head to Tilbury on Saturday who are also in the thick of a relegation fight but that is followed by two games with current top five sides, a trip to Heybridge Swifts followed by a visit from Felixstowe & Walton United.
“It is not unreasonable to think one of those can beat them or they could end up losing both,” Andrews said of the latter two games.
“I just want us to keep chipping away to maintain the pressure because when you know you have got to go win a game because you’ve not got that luxury (of not) it’s a different thing.”
Despite the punishing result at Bowers & Pitsea's Len Salmon Stadium that has become Hashtag's home, Andrews was proud of the way his players responded to the early sending off.
"I don't think anyone who watched the game will say we deserved to walk away with nothing," he said.
"We know they start quickly so to be two down in 14 minutes is hugely disappointing for us because we banged on about it in training and before the game.
"And the (early) sending off I can't say much about other than the boy's got to learn from it.
"From that minute onwards I think it sort of vitalised us.
"I thought we were by far the better team in that first half and I genuinely thought we could have gone 3-2 up at half-time, we had some great chances. And that was the message when we went in at half-time.
"We just said 'look, it's there. They're allowing us to play, for whatever reason'.
"In the second half we carried on as we did the first and got two goals.
"I genuinely felt we might go on to win it but there were a lot of tired legs out there in the end and that's their 18th straight win so they have learned to dig out results when things are going against them, and they did that again today.
"It was a sucker-punch for the third but as a manager I am extremely proud of the boys today. I thought that we were outstanding and I think they showed the Sudbury supporters what it means to them, how they worked etcetera."
He added: ""I don't think there will be many teams come here and play a team that was 17 wins on the bounce with 10 men and outplay them which we did.
"But unfortunately you don't always get what you deserve in football and today was one of those days."
Despite former Colchester United, Portsmouth and Nottingham Forest defender Halford being 6ft 4in tall he appeared to lever himself up to head home the winner but Andrews was far from left complaining about it.
"The ref is never going to give that," he said.
"He's an experienced player whose played Premiership and that's what you've got to do, you've got to be big and strong and use your experience."
He also felt Stokes got what he deserved for a moment of madness, even if it did appear worse than it was.
"The boy has fallen on the ball and our player has had a little kick out at the ball," he said.
"There was no stamp whatsover and the force of the little petulant kick was nothing more than that, petulance, but the whistle had gone. And they've shouted for it and reacted the way they did.
"If you give refs that opportunity then you get what you deserve."
Centre-back Joe Grimwood also got his marching orders for a second yellow card in stoppage time, having nudged Percy Kiangebeni over just outside the area on a breakway move.
"It's a second yellow but the first one's for throwing the ball away so again, it's something they've got to learn from," he said of the 21-year-old's actions.
"It's hard because it's an emotional game and you're playing and frustrated and I get that. But it's something that's got to be stamped out because I've never seen a ref change his mind in 40 years, especially at our level of football.
"So if he's given it (a foul) put the ball down, get back in formation and face what's coming next instead of bickering and arguing about it. I don't like that."
He was left full of praise for his Somalian international midfielder Sak Hassan though, who did everything but score a goal with some mesmerising runs.
"He's a talent but we've been working hard with him in training on when and when not to go and beat a man so to speak. Sometimes pass and move is quicker," he said.
"Today though he was unplayable at times, he was outstanding and had that goal gone in it was goal of the season. I'll look forward to watching that on Hashtag's video and hopefully next time it goes in.
"He's gone past three or four players and made them look stupid. And they couldn't live with us from that perspective."
Despite Hashtag being their bitter rivals in the title race, Andrews also had plenty of praise for the YouTube sensation club founded by Spencer Owen.
"Give Hastag credit, we asked if they could play in their away kit because our kits clashed and they happily did it," he said.
"I seriously don't understand why they get the stick they do.
"The bench is totally fine compared to others I've stood next to.
"Fair play to Dev (Jay Devereux, manager) who was first to come over and congratulate us on our performance.
"Hashtag, for whatever reason, seem to get some negative press and I don't understand it.
"I've found them nothing but a good club who do things the right way.
"Their social media is outstanding and the way they play the game so I'm not quite sure why they get the stick they do, other than they're successful and generally you come on people's radars when you're upsetting people.
"As I say, we'll keep pushing now and we don't want them to run away with it. We want them to keep checking every week to see if we've won and who knows, if they slip up once you never know."
