JOE MCELLIGOTT was "disappointed" with the way his South Park side defended as they went down 5-3 Carshalton Athletic on Saturday.
The Sparks were forced to play for more than an hour of the Ryman League fixture with ten-men after Jack Stafford was dismissed for a dangerous tackle - his second red in as many weeks.
South Park striker Chris Smith scored a hat-trick in vain, although it did take him back to the top of the league's goal-scoring charts, and boss McElligott wasn't happy.
"It's great for Chris to score a hat-trick but it's a shame for him to do that and then end up on the losing side," he said. "Given the circumstances, losing Jak Stafford after 25 or 30 minutes, we didn't do too badly.
"But even with ten men I think we should have defended better than we did in the second half. Our defending simply wasn't good enough. I was disappointed that we conceded that many."
And while McElligott believes Stafford was unlucky to see a second yellow against Whitstable Town, he had little complaint with the defender's dismissal against Carshalton.
"I thought he was unlucky at Whitstable," the manager said. "He was our last of defence and he had to do something. But on Saturday I'm afraid to most people it looked reckless. He didn't actually make contact but it was deemed reckless anyway, so that's that."
As well as being without Stafford and Joe Jackson, who was also sent off at Whitstable, Park expect to be without stalwart keeper James Wastell but is thankful to Kieran Campbell for the excellent job he has done between the sticks in recent weeks.
"Wassa's hamstring injury is taking longer than we hoped to heal," he said. "It will be another few weeks before we see him back because although he is dying to play, we don't want to rush it.
"Kieran has come in and done a great job although he's been unfortunate with the teams we have faced, like Folkestone, but we are fortunate to have him."
Park played Walton & Hersham on Tuesday night before they host Guernsey on Saturday.
