'Our own worst enemy' - Morpeth Town boss Craig Lynch delivers frank verdict on Hednesford Town defeat

Morpeth Town boss Craig Lynch has admitted that his side were their “own worst enemy” in a crushing 4-0 defeat to Hednesford Town on Saturday afternoon.

The Highwaymen were always like to face a tough task against their promotion-chasing hosts at Keys Park, but started brightly and won a number of corners before getting caught out on the break and conceding an opener inside seven minutes, courtesy of Omari Sterling-James.

The Hednesford talent would then grab his second to double his side’s lead before the interval, and the Pitmen would effectively seal all three points with a third from Montel Gibson partway through the second half.

There was still timed for Morpeth’s afternoon to get worse, however. First, goalkeeper Dan Langley was taken off injured, with outfield talent Nic Bollado replacing him between the sticks, and it wouldn’t be long before Sterling-James sprang Town’s offside trap to put a fourth past the deputising stopper, wrapping up his hat-trick in the process.

The result leaves Morpeth one point and one place away from safety with a huge away clash against Rushall Olympic to come, and reflecting on a difficult outing for his team, Lynch said: “[We were] Probably our own worst enemy.

“Take nothing away from Hednesford - a group of men, aren't they? They've got experience running all through the team and we know how good Sterling-James is. We spoke about him but we just weren't anywhere near good enough to get near him, and sometimes that's fair enough. You come up against teams that we've come up against over the years on a different level, and he's on a different level. He's probably the best player, I think, who has played against us, but we knew it.”

He added: “You still come here and you still set up to try and hurt them and like we said, stay in the game, but staying in the game isn’t conceding the goal after five minutes from our corner... Like I said, can't take anything away from the strikes that Sterling-James has produced today, but then we haven't done enough ourselves to try and stop that.”