Haywards Heath Town boss: No more slow starts, please

Shaun Saunders is demanding Haywards Heath learn from the slow start that cost them dear in their defeat at Whitstable.
Haywards Heath in action against Hastings - but a slow start cost them dear against Whitstable / Picture: Ray TurnerHaywards Heath in action against Hastings - but a slow start cost them dear against Whitstable / Picture: Ray Turner
Haywards Heath in action against Hastings - but a slow start cost them dear against Whitstable / Picture: Ray Turner

And he does not want to see a repeat of the ‘poor application’ that saw them go 3-0 down before a late fightback almost yielded a point.

Heath remain third in the Isthmian south-east ahead of Saturday’s visiting to struggling East Grinstead but Saunders said many more displays like the one at Whitstable and they’d fall to mid-table.

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Heath were three down by 48 minutes before Jerson Dos Santos and Luke Robinson struck midway through the second half to revive hopes.

Saunders said: “We started slowly and I was very disappointed with our application in the first half at Whitstable.

“But in the second half we tweaked it and were much better. We got it back to 3-2 and ran out of time. If the game had gone on another five or ten minutes we’d have drawn.

“It’s very frustrating because we’ve shown a few weeks ago we can beat a side of the calibre of Hastings and, with due respect to Whitstable, we should have been able to beat them.

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“Consistency is a problem. Win one, lose one won’t keep you near the top of the table and we’ll be looking for more from the team when we go to East Grinstead, who are scrapping for their lives and will make it hard for us.”

Saunders said sitting third in December was commendable and added: “We’re probably the surprise package of the division, although not to ourselves as we know we’re a good side.”