Hill eyeing changes after another bad day for Daisy

Yahoo

5 days ago

Daisy Hill are still searching for their first league win of the season in the North West Counties League after going down 2-1 at Ashton Town on Saturday.
After Daniel Squires put Ashton ahead midway through the first half, Chad Whyte levelled for Daisy four minutes before half time to send the sides in level at the break.
But within a minute of the restart, Noah Inneh struck what proved to be the winner for the home side, and Daisy manager Lee Hill felt afterwards that luck was not on their side over the course of the 90 minutes.
'It was a scrappy game and I think the draw would probably have been a fairer result,' said Hill.
'It was close-fought, could have gone either way, but didn't fall our way, and you can use all the clichés, but when you're struggling for confidence that's what happens.
'It's really difficult to understand why the ball doesn't drop for us, but sometimes it's just the way the way it goes.
'We were getting into good areas, but probably lacking sharpness still, and that little bit of confidence to go at defenders and cause them problems.
'We were going to make a change at half time, but gave the lads the benefit of the doubt to give them a few minutes in the second half. We conceded after 40 seconds, so we made the change straight away, with Lee Grimshaw coming on.
'We are three games in and even though we haven't sort of really hit the form we are capable of, it's still narrow margins that stopped us from picking up more points.
'But these are the games that we targeted to win, against teams that we expect are going to be in around the middle of the table. These were teams where we dropped points last season and we're doing the same again.
'We'll look at making some changes for next weekend. We are three games in, no win, one point from nine so we've got to look at changes.'
The game was evenly-contested right from the off, and Daisy had an early scare when a clearance from goalkeeper Morgan Newns was charged down by Ashton's Adam Morris, but the full-back rushed his shot and fired over.
Daisy's best chance came a few minutes later when Kaiden Barlow found space on the edge of the box and attempted to play Whyte in on goal but overhit the pass.
On 21 minutes, Ashton took the lead when a right-wing cross from Michael Grogan deceived attackers and defenders alike when it bounced awkwardly, but Ashton striker Squires reacted quickly to stoop low and head the ball past Newns from close range.
Daisy hit back, and looked to have booked their way back into the game five minutes later when Jacob Ridings was tripped in the box by Ashton's Will Hamilton.
Jake O'Brien stepped up to take the penalty but was denied by a fine save from Ashton keeper Kyle Trenerry, who dived low to his left to push the ball away for a corner.
When the kick came in, Trenerry was in action again, this time tipping over a header from Gary Basterfield.
But four minutes from half time, Daisy were level and Basterfield was involved once more, with a deep cross into the box that was helped on by Barlow into the path of Whyte, who had the simple task of side-footing home at the far post.
However, within 40 seconds of the start of the second half, Ashton regained the lead, when a ball out to the right wing found Hamilton in space, and he cut into the box and drove a low shot across the face of goal that was turned in by the unmarked Inneh.
Daisy introduced Lee Grimshaw to increase the firepower up front, and on the hour mark, he collected a flick from Whyte and attempted to lob a shot over the Ashton keeper that missed the target.
At the midway point of the half, Liam Sheppard teed up Regan Brown for a 20-yard shot that flew just wide, and a minute later a Charlie Roberts corner hit the bar and rebounded to safety as Daisy began to put on some pressure.
As the game moved into the closing minutes, Daisy were always vulnerable to the quick counter attack as they pushed forward in search of an equaliser, and they got lucky when a quick break set up a shooting chance for Ashton substitute Michael Howard, but he missed the target form 10 yards with only Newns to beat.
In the closing seconds of the game, Basterfield was shown a red card for a challenge on Inneh, and in the ensuing aftermath, Ashton's Alexandre Santos was also dismissed.
Daisy are back in action on Saturday in the North West Counties League First Division North, when they travel to Merseyside to face league new boys MSB Woolton.