STUART Corns knows he needs to quickly shore up his leaky defence to ensure Ludlow Town do not squander their encouraging start to the West Midland League premier division campaign.
The Ludlow chief again pointed to some sloppy defending as his side lost ground on the leading pack following their midweek 4-2 loss at Wellington. With central defender Tom Lappin still struggling with a hamstring injury, Corns is desperate to bring in reinforcements ahead of tomorrow’s home clash with lowly Dudley Sports.
“I’ve been on the phone this week looking to bring in a couple of lads on loan,” he said. “When we get Tom Lappin and Andy Hartlebury back in the heart of the defence they’re as good as anyone in the league, but at the moment we’re struggling at the back.
“The defending was awful against Wellington, it was schoolboy errors which you just can’t legislate for. We played some good football going forward, especially in the first half, but it’s so demoralising when teams don’t have to work hard to score against you. We’re reaching the stage where we have to score three or four times to win a game of football.
“Even when we were trailing 3-2 at half time against Wellington, I felt we could come back and win but at the back of your mind is whether we’re going to concede another sloppy goal.”
He added: “We’ve now dropped 23 points this season, and at least five or six of those points have come from our mistakes which would have made a big difference to our league position.
“We’re coming to the halfway stage to the season on Saturday. Overall, I’ve been pleased but I need to act now to make sure that our season doesn’t fade away.”
Lucas Bladon is back in contention tomorrow but Dale Williams is unavailable due to college commitments.
With their defence creaking, Ludlow could reflect on more points dropped in the 4-2 midweek loss at Wellington. The visitors missed a golden opportunity to take the lead when a penalty from Nathan Hodge was saved early on. That proved a crucial moment with Wellington going ahead just a minute later when a ball over the top caught out the Ludlow defence.
Hodge atoned for his miss with a leveller, but Wellington were back in control after more poor defending gave the hosts two goals in as many minutes.
Hodge gave Ludlow hope with his second on the stroke of half time, but chances were hard to come by for the visitors in the second period and Wellington sealed the points 15 minutes from the end.
Meanwhile, Ludlow had ended a run of four successive defeats without scoring last Saturday when fighting back from a 3-1 half time deficit to secure a 4-3 victory over mid-table Wednesfield.
Gareth Hamer scored in the opening period but Ludlow saved their best for the second half, with Corns making it 3-2 before a Hodge brace – including the winner in injury time – sealing an important victory.
The win was tainted by a hamstring injury to centre half Lappin who is now expected to be sidelined for a fortnight. With the rain pouring down and conditions slippery, both teams struggled to control the ball.
Ludlow, after Corns had shot wide, trailed to a headed effort before Hamer poked home an equaliser. Wednesfield took the lead on the half hour when Ludlow failed to clear and then just before half time they made it 3-1 following a cross from the left.
In the second half, Ludlow looked a different team and got their reward when Corns chipped in from the edge of the box. They then levelled on 70 minutes when new signing Chris Huston played in Hodge who slotted the ball home from six yards.
The hosts pushed for a winner and in the last minute good work from Huston found Lee Williams who unselfishly played in Hodge to rifle home the winner.