BILLERICAY Town boss Kevin Watson felt a lack of fitness was to blame for his first game in charge ending in defeat.
Billericay were beaten 3-0 at high-flying Dartford on Tuesday night.
And Watson has already noticed where his side are struggling.
“The longer the game went on the fitness told,” said Watson.
“We had a couple of chances after half-time which I would expect to go in but as the game went on we got more and more ragged.
“We were getting caught on the ball just purely through being tired and it’s something we need to work on.
“I’ll be trying to bring bodies into the building to give us fresh legs and a bit of impetus.
“Dartford are a good team and they will be up there at the end of the season but I’m disappointed.”
Billericay, who have now suffered three defeats in succession, sit 17th in the National League South standings.
And Watson took very few highlights from the game in which he attempted to bring in a new formation.
“It’s difficult to take positives when you’ve been beaten but I wanted to try a different system,” said Watson.
“There’s no good time to start working on it when you’re only in two days a week.
“It was our first training session the night before the game but I wanted to implement it as soon as possible to try and get a little bit of help to Jake (Robinson) at the top of the pitch.
“Our shape was OK and we’ve got good footballers but the thing that disappointed me was giving the ball away under no pressure.
“If you do that then the ball is going to come back and you’re going to be under pressure more often than not.”
But Watson also felt that was down to his team not being fit enough.
“When you have good footballers you expect them to keep hold of the ball but the thing that’s most glaringly obvious is that the boys are just nowhere near fit enough,” said the former Ebbsfleet United boss.
“The longer games go the more ragged they get.
“It’s something we need to work on and it’s difficulkt when you’re going to be playing Saturday, Tuesday, Saturday, Tuesday with only Thursdays to train but they need to be looking after themselves away from the club as well.”
There was also disappointment for Concord Rangers in National League South on Tuesday night as they were beaten 2-1 at Ebbsfleet United.
Alex Wall fired the Beach Boys into the lead inside the first minute but Ebbsfleet hit back to condemn Concord to defeat.
Danny Scopes’ side are now 16th in the table, one place and two points above Billericay.
Concord will now be looking to bounce back at 13th placed Hemel Hempstead Town this weekend while Billericay Town host Dulwich Hamlet.
Dulwich are currently 11th in the standings.
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