Yeovil Town boss Billy Rowley admitted his side were well beaten by an FC Halifax Town team which showed more desire in an early kick-off in West Yorkshire.
The Glovers were felled by a free-kick from the hosts’ Cody Johnson and a close range finish from Will Flint inside eight second half minutes before defender Archie Davies was dismissed for two bookable offences soon after.
To compound a bad afternoon at the office, they also saw influential captain Brett McGavin go off with injury with less than half-an-hour played at The Shay.
Speaking to BBC Somerset reporter Mark Stillman after the match, Rowley said: “We were beaten by the better team today, definitely.
“We had a couple of moments in the first half where we created some half-decent counterattacks, but their game plan was obviously to go man-for-man all over the pitch. It was very hard to get any rhythm and, generally speaking, the team that wants it more in those games will usually come out on top.
“I didn’t think we were great in the transition moments. I didn’t think we were great at winning the second balls and trying to settle into our rhythm. Alternatively, when we did go long and tried to win a second ball, we didn’t really get around the second ball enough.
“It was a bit of an ugly game, but full credit to Halifax. They were better than us today in most aspects of the game.”
The loss of McGavin with just 26 minutes gone was an early blow. Rowley said the midfielder felt his calf soon after kick-off and he was replaced by Davies.
The boss said: “That was a massive blow for us. He felt his calf in the first couple of minutes and couldn’t really cover the ground he wanted to. Obviously, he had to come off and we had to shuffle things.
“I don’t think this game was a massive tactical masterpiece. This was a man-for-man game, a bit like basketball. Dealing with your own man, dealing with your own duel, and we lost too many of them today.
“We missed Jordan Norville-Williams for that type of thing. He’s superb at just getting hold of his man, winning the duels and securing the ball. But we weren’t very good at that and, if you can’t do the nuts and bolts of the hard work and graft, then you’re probably going to lose.”
Already 2-0 down and struggling to contain their hosts, Yeovil lost defender Davies who picked up his second yellow card for a rash tackle on the edge of the box with 70 minutes played. He will now be unavailable for next weekend’s FA Cup first round tie at Chesterfield.
Rowley said: “As soon as Archie went off, ten versus eleven, sadly you don’t think you’re probably going to get a point out of the game, which is really hard to take. It’s a long way to come. I felt like we were set up today to produce a bit of an upset here or get at least a point.”