‘Bites you hard’: Banbury United boss Craig McKay condemns ‘story of our season’
“You cannot have any lapse of concentration at this level, or it will bite you and bite you hard,” says Banbury United interim boss Craig McKay.
Banbury United’s interim manager Craig McKay believes a running theme has cost the Puritans dearly so far this season.
In a relegation battle near the foot of the Southern League Premier Central standings, Banbury were hoping to build on their recent successive 12th-placed finishes.
But the Puritans have regressed rather than progressed, struggling to put games to bed and so often giving up cheap goals in matches – particularly at the starts and ends of halves.
McKay, who was previously ex-manager Kelvin Langmead’s assistant and is now the interim boss following Langmead’s resignation, reckons Jekyll-and-Hyde performances are to blame for Banbury’s poor results.
Time and time again, the Puritans have performed well for 45 minutes of fixtures but they haven’t been able to string together a fully consistent display.
That was absolutely the case in the recent 2-1 derby-day defeat at Stratford Town, the first loss away at the Bards since Boxing Day in 2018.
“I’m really disappointed that it’s another game that we’ve not given a full 90-minute performance to,” McKay told Puritans Live.
“I thought we were right in it the first half, we had the lion’s share of it. We looked compact, we looked comfortable and the shape worked really well.
“And then we came out and just didn’t start. We gave two goals away cheaply. We didn’t defend the box well enough for the first. The second, it was a free-kick in the middle of the pitch, they played it quickly and then it’s an uphill battle.
“It’s disappointing, because everything we spoke about at half time was building off the good things we did in the first half.”
Banbury have not had the best luck with injuries so far this season, but that doesn’t excuse the mistakes that have cropped up far too regularly.
McKay hopes his Puritans side can begin to revoke those frailties from their game, and sharpish.
“You cannot have any lapse of concentration at this level, or it will bite you and bite you hard,” McKay continued.
“It’s been the story of our season. It might even be on the flip side. On Saturday (November 7 vs Leamington), it was a poor first half and better second.
“The amount of times we’ve done that, where we can’t get a 95-minute performance out of them… it’s incredibly frustrating.”