Midfielder Kyle Dempsey has given his thoughts on Saturday’s 1-0 defeat to league leaders Shrewsbury Town at the Montgomery Waters Meadow.
Aristote Nsiala’s 89th minute header sealed victory for the hosts, who stretched their unbeaten league run to fifteen games in a game and continue to be the only side in the EFL yet to taste defeat.
Dempsey rues the bad fortune that has befallen his side, but admits Town have to improve from defending set pieces.
“We’re going to have to tighten up sooner or later or it’s going to cost us points after points,” Dempsey said.
“It is becoming a common thing now conceding set pieces, so we’re never going to get that standard we had last year if we keep making these stupid mistakes.
“I think one key example [of bad luck] is when the ball came over the top and Conor [McAleny] stood on the ball, and it’s just one of those things at the minute that isn’t dropping for us.
“We’re just not getting that fortune, but we can’t keep using excuses because it’s our own mistakes that are costing us.”
Conditions in Shropshire made life difficult for both sides, but the back line mostly reduced the hosts to long distance strikes, which rarely troubled Alex Cairns.
“In the first half, any long pass was caught in the wind so we had to go to Plan B and try to get the ball in behind their defenders.
“If you watch the game back we didn’t really have any clear cut chances at all. We had a few breaks that we missed out because of unfortunate touches.
“We defended well. They didn’t really have any troubling shots for Alex and if you ask him he’ll probably say the same so it just came down to the last minute which is unfortunate.”
Despite Saturday’s setback, the 22-year-old’s message for next week’s match against Oxford United is simple.
“We have to get back to winning ways.”