Hippolyte admits the stats don't lie after Concord send Magpies' season into a tailspin

Maidenhead United’s season has been sent into a tailspin by Concord Rangers and the manager has admitted ‘the stats don’t lie’.

Tuesday’s 2-1 home defeat against Rangers was the club’s third in a row, plunging them to within three points of 19th placed Hayes and Yeading United, and was also the 12th time they’d failed to pick up all three points in 13 league games.

Afterwards Johnson Hippolyte admitted the United dressing room was very low at the moment, but vowed to raise the players’ heads for games of a crunch Conference South season.

Tuesday’s defeat followed hot on the heels of Saturday’s 1-0 home disappointment against promotion chasing Boreham Wood.

Hippolyte said that bad luck had played its part, but conceded there must be an underlying problem behind the side’s poor form.

“Again we played well for long periods on Tuesday night,” said Hippolyte.

“But we committed hari-kari with the mistakes we made in the second half.

“The errors seem to be going around the whole team and it’s costing us and making for a terrible season.”

Dave Tarpey tapped the Magpies into a half-time lead, but a soft penalty conceded by Adrian Clifton was dispatched by Danny Glozier, before Mark Nisbet gave up possession cheaply in the build up to a sliced own goal calamity from on loan Brentford defender Kieran Morris.

“You can’t legislate for these errors,” said Hippolyte.

“We’re making far too many mistakes, and maybe that’s down to a lack of confidence, or players not being good enough if I’m being harsh.

“But it keeps happening. I look long and hard at what we do in comparison with other teams at our level and I don’t think we’re doing a lot wrong as a management team but we’re not getting results. When you’re making these errors there has to be an underlying problem there.”

The manager is now nervously looking over his shoulder at the results of sides below Maidenhead in the table and his side will have to pick up points against some of the best sides in the league if they want to dig themselves out of trouble. The final straight of fixtures starts with a tricky away test at Ebbsfleet United on Saturday, with Ebbsfleet coming into the game off the back of a 2-1 win over leaders Bromley.

“Without a doubt we’ll have to do it the hard way.

“If we were getting well beaten by the top sides I’d hold my hands up and say we’re not good enough, but when you lose by an odd goal or a mistake you know you’re capable of beating these sides, so we’re not a million miles away.”

He added: “Recent results don’t make for good reading, but if you look closely at those 13 games there’s a fine line between success and failure. But the stats don’t lie and aren’t good enough at any level of football.”