"WE made the game a mess" says manager Mike Ford after Evesham United's 7-8 penalty loss in the Isuzu FA Trophy.

The Robins lost after a 1-1 draw on Saturday, September 9, and manager Mike Ford said his side were looking good in the game until they opened the scoring.

He said: "We were very good until we scored. We played some fantastic stuff, we were really on the front foot.

"We created opportunities but had a little spell when we allowed them back into the game. We regrouped and got a nice goal.

"From that minute until the game finished after the penalties, we made the game a mess.

"We did not continue and stopped doing what we had done to get ourselves in the lead. We looked a bit fearful of being in possession."

Ford said that the issues seen in the game were "ongoing" with The Robins, and his side need to do better with managing the game.

He said: "It is an ongoing issue a bit with us at the moment, we are not managing the game. We cannot play as well as that for the first 30 minutes and then the game becomes 1-1.

"I am not an excuses person at all. We just needed to settle down, slow the game down, and have the ball at our feet up until halftime and continue in the second half.

"Our goal did not make us safe. They had one shot on target and it was such a poor goal, then they go through to the next round because they are better at penalties than we are.

"You do sit and listen and watch managers saying 'we should have won' and I am not going to say that because we did not.

"We played enough football in the game to look like a half-decent team, but that is very different to winning those games of football."

Bashley FC are now through to the second qualifying round of the Isuzu FA Trophy after the win.