Disjointed YM lose to Lingfield

All three of the Surrey visitors’ goals came from mistakes from the home defence as a YM side looking bereft of confidence slumped to their third straight Division 1 defeat.

In a poor first half from both sides Lingfield took the lead when striker and skipper Danny Oakins made the most of an error from home defender Matt Crane to score in the 26th minute.

Manager Peter Buckland switched from 4-4-1-1 to a more familiar 4-4-2 formation at half-time, and it seemed to have got YM back on track when, on 54 minutes striker Martin Smith nodded in Dan Sullivan’s corner to make it 1-1.

But just a minute later that good work was undone when YM centre back Charlie Girdler’s header back put his goalkeeper under pressure and Paul Williams could only spill the ball allowing Oakins - who suffered a minor heart attack earlier in the season - in for his second goal of the game.

The match had suddenly burst into life and only two minutes after that YM had a great shout for a penalty turned town, the ball appearing to clearly strike a defender’s arm inside the box.

And completing a furious ten minutes Lingfield went straight up the other end and scored - Louis Gallagher profiting from further indecisive home defending to slot the ball into the far corner for a 3-1 lead.

From there it was largely YM pushing for a way back into the game, and striker Smith was unlucky to see a lob bounce only fractionally wide before Lingfield keeper Rob O’Hara denied him another clear chance.

YM had a second good penalty appeal waved away when skipper Ashley Dugdale seemed to be nudged in the back when primed to tap in from close range, but overall Buckland’s side were disappointing in crashing to their 13th league defeat of the season.