Bedford Town boss laments luck after two defeats in four days

Bedford's Afolabi Soyemi-Ololade makes his presence felt at Mickleover on Saturday. Photo by Adrian Brown.

The Eagles put in a strong performance but as well as conceding three goals, also had Charley Sanders sent off as the hosts took all three points.

Afolabi Soyemi-Ololade had levelled things up just after half-time after Basford led at the break, but two goals in the last seven minutes saw them ultimately beaten.

That result followed a 2-0 loss at Mickleover on Saturday, leaving Setchell to assess the damage.

He told Eagles TV: “We’re making those sucker punches and don’t get soft goals given for us – I’ve said to the boys they’re literally giving me everything they’ve got and I can’t fault the work rate and desire, what I can fault is that we’re missing good chances then conceding soft goals after periods of domination.

"At 1-1 we were by far the better team, we then had a clear penalty turned down and you can tell by the players’ reaction it was a penalty as the lad’s dived in with his hands in the air but the ref ignored that.

"Then there’s an incident between Charley and their centre-half and I’m too far away from it but the ref’s played on and their players’ reaction got him sent off.

"If he’s going to go on players' reaction then he gives the penalty and if he’s not then he doesn’t send Charley off because he didn’t blow his whistle.

"But we missed numerous chances in the first-half and gone in a goal down, came out in the second and scored a great goal, then missed some chances and with ten men got tired and made some basic errors for their second and third goals.

"The red card decision changed the game completely because we’d created a lot of chances and were well in the game but it was just the fact we hadn’t scored.

"I feel bad for the players and supporters because I feel we’re not getting the results we deserve.”

Bedford now prepare to host St Ives Town on Saturday, their opponents from just across the Cambridgeshire border sitting just a point below Setchell’s men but with four games in hand on them.

Setchell said: “Saturday’s a massive game for us, our biggest of the season with it being a local derby and between two evenly-matched teams.

"They’ll be looking for a result, we’ve got to get a result and it will be a great game.”