March Town boss Chris Bartlett riled after Hares beaten by strong Braintree Reserves side
Chris Bartlett's March Town have now lost their last five games in all competitions. - Credit: Archant
March Town boss Chris Bartlett was left aggrieved after his men fell to a 3-1 defeat to a Braintree Town Reserves side that fielded six first-team players.
The Hares were sentenced to a fifth consecutive defeat in all competitions last Saturday thanks to goals from Braintree’s Joe Gardner, Jack Tyrer and Michael Cheek – who has 10 National League goals for the Essex side’s first team this term - and the Hares boss was left feeling bemused by Braintree’s line-up.
Bartlett said: “We competed well against a team made up mostly of first team players.
“When you’ve lost your last four games in a row, then come up against a side that is fielding players from the National League then it’s not great.
“There’s nothing you can do it about it - it’s not the first time it’s happened to us and it won’t be the last.”
Cheek opened the scoring six minutes before half time, before Gardner added a second mid-way through the second half.
A Liam Merryweather penalty restored some parity for the Hares 12 minutes from time, but Tyrer added a third for the Iron’s second-string before an afternoon to forget for March was capped by a red card for midfield man Matthew Cox.
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Despite his side’s poor result, Bartlett says coming up against higher-level players can only be beneficial for his squad ahead of another important Thurlow Nunn Division One fixture with Haverhill Borough at the GER on Saturday afternoon (3pm).
He said: “It’s great for the lads to come up against players of that quality but it’s bad timing for the squad as a whole. We’ll build and go again.”
The Hares look set to welcome back Dan Woods who missed the defeat to Braintree with the flu, but are still without Lewis McManus who has missed March’s last three games through injury.
