Misfiring forwards must take responsibility

Diss Town’s misfiring strike force must take the blame for Tuesday’s derby draw away at Stowmarket Town, according to Ross Potter.

The Tangerines boss cut a frustrated figure following their 1-1 draw at Greens Meadow earlier this week, in a game which saw Potter’s side have 17 shots at goal.

A point may have extended their unbeaten run to six games and moved them up one place to 10th in the Thurlow Nunn League First Division table, but Potter admits his side can do better.

“Being on an unbeaten run is helpful because it breeds confidence,” said the Diss manager ahead of their home clash against Braintree Town Reserves tomorrow (3pm).

“But we know we’ve got to do better in front of goal.

“We work on it week-in week-out, go to training and pop them in the top corners.

“We played Downham on Saturday and we probably had about five or six chances in the first-half and were 4-0 up.

“So I thought we’d turned the corner then, but we’re back to where we were a few games ago.”

The Tangerines romped to their biggest away win of the season at the weekend, with goals from Joseph Manning (two), Jason Armes and Danny Self helping them to a 4-0 victory at Downham Town.

On Tuesday, Potter’s side looked on course for back-to-back wins on the road after Chris Gibbons gave them the lead on 27 minutes.

The Tangerines then had numerous chances to extend their advantage at Stowmarket but paid the price for not taking them when former Diss striker Matt Dixon equalised for the hosts.

“It was just exactly the same as the whole season has been really,” Potter said. “I thought we were dominant throughout the game, certainly in the first-half.

“Even though we weren’t as good in the second-half we still deserved to get the three points.

“I think the second goal was the key one.

“If we went 2-0 up like we did in the first game over here—obviously this is one of our replayed games— we could have put it to bed early.

“You can argue over the goal they scored, whether it was a mistake at the back, but I think the strikers have to take the brunt of (the) criticism because they had a good nine chances to score.”

Since losing to runaway leaders Wivenhoe Town on December 5, Diss have won two and drawn four of their last six games, and have clawed back the deficit from the seven points taken away for fielding an ineligible player earlier in the season.

“If you look at the table we’ve lost the same amount of games as Ely (City) who are second,” Potter added.

“We’re certainly not inferior to them, but anyone who watches us knows what the problem is and that’s not putting games to bed when (we are) on top.”