Brabin’s reveals clean sheets desire

Frustrated by Tuesday night’s 2-2 draw at Hayes & Yeading he is in little doubt that his side need to be more ruthless in attack and defence if they are to realise their promotion favourites tag.

He said: “I’ve had a little go. It was disappointing because of the way the game went.

“If we had gone there and it had been a hard-fought 0-0 draw I would probably not have been disappointed. But it wasn’t. We were wasteful with chances.

“I was really disappointed with the result.

“We need to be ruthless in the other box and we haven’t been.

“I’ve spoken to Amari (Morgan-Smith) and (Danny) Crow who have been excellent. They are different types of players.

“They’ve done well but maybe I’m being a bit harsh but Amari should have six in the last four games and Crow should have four.

“We’ve missed three penalties in the last two games so there’s another three goals for someone.

“If we are going to be serious promotion contenders we need to be more ruthless.

“All over the park we need people to be ruthless when we are creating chances to get on the end of things.”

Penalties is one issue that needs to be resolved, with Brabin saying: “It is becoming a little bit of a monkey on our back now. Everyone loves practising penalties but there’s a completely different atmosphere when there’s a bit of pressure on.

“It’s something that is a concern. We’ve had situations in the past where we have had people fighting to get on the penalties.

“Now it’s who wants to step up and be brave and has confidence to take them.”

The other main issue is Town’s defensive frailties which mean they are yet to keep a clean sheet this season.

Brabin added: “That’s something that has to be ironed out quickly. We’ve had to reshuffle the whole back four.

“In terms of the injuries they couldn’t be prevented. We have had to rebuild our defensive unit.

“I don’t want to use that as an excuse as we have some good players there.

“We need a desire to keep clean sheets and we certainly had that at the back end of last year.

“We’ve got to instil that as quickly as possible into the new back five.”