Louth Town are rocked by title rivals Nettleham

Louth Town's Lincolnshire League title hopes were rocked after two red cards saw them beaten 2-1 at home by rivals Nettleham on Saturday.
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And boss Carl Martin has now told his side they must bounce back at Nunsthorpe this Saturday to stay in contention.

Straight red cards for Dan Pawson on 54 minutes and Bradley Coulam on 68 minutes left them up against it as the White Wolves lost two in a row for the first time all season.

“It is disappointing to lose two on the bounce. But we are not down and out and should not have our heads down. We need a reaction. We can't let the season peter out,” said Martin.

Louth skipper Alex Aldrich - his goal proved in vain on Saturday.Louth skipper Alex Aldrich - his goal proved in vain on Saturday.
Louth skipper Alex Aldrich - his goal proved in vain on Saturday.

“We are now down to third but we are still right in among it. Pre-season we would have snapped your hand off to be in this position.

“There is always going to be bumps in the road and setbacks, that's just football. Sometimes you just don't get the run of the ball.

“But we desperately need the three points on Saturday to keep in touch with our rivals, stay on their curtain tails and keep with the pack.”

Ben Fidling punished a defensive error to put Nettleham ahead on 16 minutes and on 40 minutes a long ball was squared centrally for Andy Bullivant to make it 2-0.

Skipper Alex Aldrich rose highest to head Louth back into it a minute after the break, but the red cards left them with a mountain to climb.

“We started off pretty well and could have been two up before we conceded two horrendous goals,” said Martin.

“We keep shipping bad goals at the moment and we're not taking our chances. We need to be better in both boxes.

“Their second goal came just before half-time which was a bad time to concede. We had harsh words at half-time and a minute into the second half we clawed it back to 2-1 and were in the ascendency.

“But our discipline let us down with the two red cards. The first one was justified, the second a bit soft.

“To be fair to the lads with 9 v 11 they gave it a right good go and I was proud of them. They went right to the end.”

Nettleham jumped over Louth into second place but are only a point ahead and have played two games more.

Mitchell Taylor is already suspended for the weekend from his red card last week and now Pawson and Coulam will start three game bans too.

“At the moment we are light on numbers with the suspensions and a few injuries,” said Martin.

“But it's no excuse on our part. Our discipline needs to be a lot better than it has been the last two games.”

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