HEAD coach Nick Tisdale has urged his players to take their frustration out in training after Malvern suffered a controversial late defeat to Stoke on Trent on Saturday.
The Spring Lane side looked on course for a fine home win over Stoke, who had stunned Midlands One West leaders Lichfield last week, as they led 23-13 with 15 minutes remaining.
But in a cruel late twist, Robert Spruce crashed over – despite strong calls for a forward pass in the build-up – before the visitors secured a dramatic 27-23 victory when William Sant crossed with two minutes left.
Tisdale said he was disappointed to once again see Malvern throw away a winning position, but he believes his players must hit training hard if they are to start turning promising perfromances into valuable victories.
“We were a 100 per cent better than last week and if it was not for a few lapses in discipline in the last 15 minutes in our own 22 it would have been a different story,” he said.
“We must cut out that ill-discipline which I think has been down to a bit of fatigue and probably not being sharp enough after the Christmas break.
“We have also got other people coming back from injury who have had very little game-time.
“They just need to keep turning up for training. As well as getting fitter it will help to improve their acurracy and ball handling skills.
“If you are putting two sessions in every week before the game then two of three weeks down the line you’ll be far better shape than you were before and you’ll be able to make better quality decisions.”
Despite Malvern’s lowly league position as they hover just six points above the relegation places, Tisdale has been impressed by the amount of people looking to play for the club.
Among those include champion power-lifter Jamie Barber who the Malvern boss was looking forward to working with.
“He is keen to get better, so with the coaching set-up we have got with myself, Rob Cook and Pete Walton we should be able to improve him and hopefully he’ll pay us back by staying here and playing well in the future,” he added.
“There was also a back rower and a prop come second row who turned up, so we have got a few lads coming through the door which is always nice even when we’re not winning as many games as we would like.”