HIGHMOOR Ibis manager Marcus Richardson admits his players have lost some of their desire after seeing them lose 3-0 to Tuffley Rovers at Palmer Park, writes Dave Wright.

It was their third successive Hellenic League defeat and came just a week after they had crashed 6-0 at Binfield.

“To me, today was even more embarrassing than Binfield,” said Richardson after Saturday’s game.

“For some reason I am not seeing the desire we once had. There is so much I am not seeing from my team at the moment. It was a poor performance all round.

“It is disheartening when you see things like that. The players are letting themselves down.”

Richardson added: “Even though we were missing a few experienced players I still thought we would be good enough to win the game.

“But this has now happened to us more than once in the last two or three weeks, and it shows we are not good enough when we are missing key players.

“I was particularly disappointed with this performance, as I saw some good things from players in training last week and I thought we would bounce back from out defeat.

“Were they (Tuffley) a good team? No. Did they create much? No.

“They scored two goals on the counter attack and then we gave away a stupid penalty.”

Tuffley, with the wind in their favour, took the lead on 20 minutes when Brett James fired home a low shot from just outside the penalty area.

An error in defence let in Jordan Fletcher, but he failed to find the target, Soon afterwards, the Rovers No. 9 had a chance to make amends, only to be denied by keeper Ashley East.

Highmoor did create a couple of half chances before half-time, but without seriously threatening the visitors’ goal.

With the wind now behind them, Highmoor’s Mitchell Parker decided to test out the elements straight from the start of the second half, sending a high dropping shot towards the Tuffley but, with keeper Phil Clarke back pedalling, the ball dropped just over the bar.

Lamin Sankoh wasted a good chance to equalise when he broke through before Ibe Bangura needlessly conceded a penalty with a push in the area, allowing James to double Tuffley’s lead in the 72nd minute.

And Mark Ford added a third for the Gloucestershire side five minutes from time with the Ibis defence looking for an offside whistle that never came.

Highmoor’s lack of fire power is of particular concern to Richardson and his team have failed to score in their last three games.

“They are making me wanting to dust off my boots,” said the 38-year-old former Football League striker.

“Had I played today, then I would have guaranteed it would have been a different game.

“They have got me thinking about playing next Saturday. I will see how it goes this week before deciding.”

Highmoor host Thame United at Palmer Park Stadium on Saturday (3pm).