Euell agony as Saints lose reserves cup tie

6:06am Tuesday 2nd September 2008

Comments (5)   Have your say »

SAINTS reserve team coach Mark Wotte preferred to accentuate the positive rather than focus on the negative after his young side's 4-2 Combination Cup loss to Bristol City last night at Staplewood.

On another night and with more luck in front of goal the result could have been very different with Saints dominating for large periods.

But Saints were punished for missing a string of decent chances in both halve.

Wotte said: "It was a good level of football. It was a high quality match with a lot of pressure and Bristol came with four or five players that are regulars in the first team so I am not ashamed about the result.

"We are creating chances and play with a good attitude and good pressure football.

"I saw some very dangerous wingers today and the only thing that we didn't do was scoring the goals."

Midfielder Jason Euell, 31, went off just before the break with a dislocated shoulder suffered in a hefty challenge by Gavin Williams.

And Wotte felt the absence of the experienced Euell made a big difference.

"In such a young team such a player can make a big difference because in this period we played the best football and were the better team and it was unlucky that he had to leave the pitch," he said.

Wotte said he expects Euell to be out for at least two weeks.

"He popped his arm out of the shoulder and we had to push it back but he will be out for a couple of weeks but tomorrow there will be an x-ray and we will have to see the damage."

Saints v Bristol City match report - see today's Daily Echo.