ALL credit to Newport Pagnell, they defended very stoutly and deserved their win.

We were very poor for the first half hour and they started at a high tempo.

They had two decent front men, an experienced centre back, a good goalie and a tall midfielder who won his headers.

We conceded a very poor goal after only five minutes when we let their winger run 70 yards.

Apart from in the first 15 minutes or so they didn’t create much until the very end, by which time we had four strikers on the field and they had a couple of breakaway opportunities.

Jools missed our best chance on the stroke of half-time when he just had to sidefoot it into an empty net, while Adam Heath had a good chance from just eight yards in the second half.

Of course, there was Andy Minturn’s ‘goal’, a great header from a Steve Davies corner which flew in from 12 yards. It was impossible to see from the dugout, but to be fair to the linesman, he did flag early to signal that the corner had curled out of play before coming back.

That is now five games without a clean sheet and that is not good enough.

I feel I have carte blanche to make changes on Saturday after a massively disappointing performance like that. And only two or three players are safe.

With Nathan (Haisley) unfit, Harry Etheridge and Rob Dean, who had done so well in the Bishops Cleeve game, got another chance but they didn’t take it this time.

It emphasised how weak we are in central midfield without Nathan, who is a big player for us.

He actually had a fitness test on Friday but his foot was too sore to kick a ball. With another week of physio, we are hoping he will be ready for Saturday.

The search goes on for a midfielder to play alongside him who can pass. I must have contacted 12 clubs last week and I am still hoping I can get someone in for the weekend.

We played the same system as we had against Bishops Cleeve with a back three and Matt Williams behind the front two.

Dan Thompson came back into the squad after playing for the Academy on Thursday, and replaced the injured Ben Pugh after about 70 minutes, while Bristol Rovers would not let Adam Mahdi get Cup-tied.

I thought Steve Davies did very well when he replaced Mattie ‘in the hole’. He was never dropped as such, he was just a vicitim of circumstance and the system we adopted.