King’s Lynn Town were on the end of a thumping at Sutton, and manager Ian Culverhouse was brutally honest in his appraisal, as Chris Lakey reports
Ian Culverhouse pulled no punches as he reflected on the most punishing performance of the season.
The Linnets boss said his players had been naive and weak from start to finish as they crashed 5-1 at Sutton United.
But what will probably annoy him more than anything is the lack of leadership shown.
It’s not as if this is an inexperienced – not all have played at National League level, but there aren’t many who can claim to be genuine footballing rookies.
And that’s probably why Culverhouse can’t wait for the international clearance to come through quickly for Kyle Callan-McFadden, whose departure from League of Ireland side Sligo Rovers is set to bring an end to a long waiting game for director of football Rob Back. The Home Office will probably have more say than Culverhouse on when Callan-McFadden makes debut, but the Lynn boss needs him. And soon.
What does the former Canaries FA Youth Cup winner bring?
“Leadership,” he said. “We need it, strength as well, because he is a strong defender and he plays on the front foot - after that display he won’t find it hard to get in the team, hut we need to have options and we need big men now to stand up and lead this club forward, and hopefully he will be one of them.”
As Culverhouse himself admitted, on the showing at Gander Green Lane, he doesn’t have enough leaders.
“We have got enough experience, not probably at this level, but we have enough experience with games under their belts. There aren’t too many that haven’t got a lot of games under their belt in that side, but it just looked today the towel was thrown in very, very quickly and that hurts, that really did hurt, because I didn’t think I would have to go through that conversation again.”
The ‘conversation’ was the one held in the dressing room after the match – and one that had been heard there at times during the recent four-game losing run – and explained Culverhouse’s late appearance for media duties.
“I thought we were weak today, really weak, all over the pitch, back to front - really poor. so we have to take it no the chin and come back stronger on Tuesday (at Barnet),” he said.
“The goals we are giving away are rubbish goals so we have got to have a look at ourselves, there but I just thought from start to finish we were poor.”
Seven days earlier, Culverhouse had been fulsome in his praise for his players who had performed so well to win at Port Vale in the FA Cup. But almost the first comment he made that day was that you don’t go overboard on the high moments. How right he was, although even throwing the old ‘FA Cup hangover’ cliche into the mitigation mix didn’t cut any ice.
“You can look at things like that but it is a game of football and we have got to be better,” he said.
Then there’s the ‘what might have been’ argument after Lynn, at 2-0, staged a recovery which, had Jamar Loza taken a presentable chance and Rory McAuley not been denied by a brilliant save, might have been game changers.
“It could have been, but they never,” said Culverhouse. “It is alright saying things like that but the goals we gave away – you can’t defend like that.
“I think even if we had scored those they would have got goals anyway because of the way we were playing because we were always open and we are exposing the keeper too much.
“There are no positives from that. Just throw it in the bin, lick our chops and come back stronger.
“There are no excuses in that performance whatsoever. The goals we are giving away at the moment – two from corners again – is unacceptable at any level. I have always been really critical and made sure we don’t give goals away at set-plays and at the moment we look like a sieve.”
While the Linnets boss is awaiting a new arrival, there has been one exit, albeit a quiet one: Kyle Barker, who signed on loan from Peterborough United, has returned to London Road without making an appearance. He was due to be at Lynn until January.
“He’s gone back,” confirmed Culverhouse. “It is purely game time, because we are trying to find our feet and get a foothold and we just couldn’t get him in. We were a bit of overloaded in that position anyway, but he is a fine player and a really good lad and I wish him all the best, but it is probably just the wrong time.”
During the warm-up Jake Jessup, the former Lowestoft Town keeper now with Coggeshall, was warming up with assistant manager Paul Bastock and number one Archie Mair, bit it seems a move is unlikely.
“He has been training with us and just wanted to come along and warm up Archie,” said Culverhouse.
“He’s not playing any games so he is using this for training.”
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