LEE Hooper wants to see ‘more bite’ from his Malvern Town side following a 6-1 home drubbing against Frome Town.
Malvern shipped six goals against new league leaders Frome on an afternoon to forget for the Hillsiders at the HDAnywhere Community Stadium.
The result means Malvern sit fifth in the Southern League Division One South table, four points behind leaders Frome.
And while Hooper felt the result was harsh on the home side, the Malvern boss feels his side must take more responsibility on the pitch.
Hooper said: “We look at stats in detail. We’ve had 16 shots, they’ve had 11.
“We’ve hit the crossbar, we hit the post, we had a penalty saved and we missed an open goal.
“Their goalkeeper has made five really good saves and Seth [Locke] has made two.
“They had the ball in good areas with overloads but it’s a difficult one to take.
“We weren’t good enough but the bottom line is it has finished six-one.
“They’ve put the ball in the net. They are a good team. It was a tough day.
“We know how low we are on numbers and we missed those players who were out.
“They’re massive characters but you ask lads to step up and we didn’t do that as a group which is disappointing.
“The scoreline is harsh but that’s football.
“Ultimately, we’ve got to stick together. We believe the group is good enough.
“We’ve just got to show more bite, we can’t get bullied like we did, we’ve got to win more first contacts.
“We’ve got to take more responsibility in what we’re doing. Our decision-making was very poor.
“As a group we’ve got to learn from it. We have to react to it and put it right.”
The Hillsiders found themselves three goals behind at the break as Archie Ferris netted a brace before Sam Meakes extended the away side’s lead.
And Frome scored three more times in the second half as Harry Lucas, Zak Drew and David Duru all found the net to leave the home side stunned.
Malvern scored a consolation goal courtesy of Dion Molyneux but could not reduce the deficit further in a heavy home defeat.
Malvern are next in action against Falmouth Town on Saturday, November 1 with kick-off at 3pm at Bickland Park.
