Coventry Sphinx manager Luke Hopkins has said that he is taking plenty of positives from his side's 5-4 defeat at Kirby Muxloe.
Speaking to the Sphinx website, Hopkins said: “I don’t think Kirby really touched the ball in the first 30 minutes apart from the throw in where we gave them the ball 20 yards out and allowed them to shoot for their first goal.
"The second goal, I would expect my keeper to catch week in, week out.
"Despite that, I maintain that Carlo (Carl O’Neill) is one of the best keepers in our business and around our level of football in the Midlands. Everyone is allowed a mistake; otherwise they would be playing at a higher level.”
The second half started with another Kirby goal to make it 3-0 to the home team. Luke commented. “The third Kirby goal was a cross off the players shin pad and if he said he meant it, he should buy £90 shin pads instead of boots!”
Sphinx got a goal back a minute later with the first of what was to be a hat-trick for striker Nic Evangelinos. However, Kirby went on to score their fourth and fifth in the 71st and 72nd minutes. Luke said, “The 4th and 5th Kirby goals were good goals and came about from our shape change as we went to try and get something from the game, but catch 22”.
Straight after Kirby had reached their tally of five, Sphinx’s Nic Evangelinos scored his second of the game. On the 86th minute the referee awarded a penalty to Sphinx which was converted by Ashley Cain and on the 90th minute, Evangelinos completed his hat-trick. Play continued with Sphinx having very much the upper hand with corner after corner being hammered into the Kirby box. The equaliser nearly came from Sphinx keeper O’Neill after he had come forward to join the attack but the gamed ended 5-4 to the home team.
“Although we had 80% of the play it never materialised in the final third and that’s what killed us, we didn’t score when on top. Once we got one goal another three followed and I feel that we would have been awarded another 2 penalties on any other day. For the penalty we were awarded I don’t understand why it wasn’t followed by a red card for the player who committed the foul, but that’s a whole story within itself.
“I felt for Nic. He got his hat-trick and worked worked hard but we didn’t win and we won’t when we concede five. We had a chance at the end to get a point, with our keeper forcing theirs into a good save but it just wasn’t meant to be.
“We’re taking plenty of positives from the game, but we also know we have work to do defensively. Hopefully we can keep Nic for another game before he returns to University and the hunt then goes on for another striker. We have lads who can play up there and we have the young lad Kyle Jaynes in our youth team, but I feel it’s unfair to rely on a 16 year old to lead the line every week. We haven’t really had one striker all season that’s settled in and been the main choice."