Wisbech Town boss Kevin Ward praises "best football of season" but Fenmen go down 3-1 at Stocksbridge Park Steels - manager reaction

Wisbech Town went down 3-1 at seventh place Stocksbridge Park Steels on Saturday afternoon, with boss Kevin Ward praising the "best football we've played this season" from the Fenmen.

But missed chances in the BetVictor Northern Premier League south east division, and bad luck, again dogged the visitors.

The home side took the lead through a controversial Luke Mangham penalty in the 29th minute and made it two through Scott Ruthven nine minutes into the second half.

A Reece Fielding own goal after 76 minutes got the Fenmen back in the match but Joshua Nodder sealed all three points for the Sheffield team two minutes from the end. Wisbech remain two points from safety.

New signing from Stamford Jack Keeble played alongside Beckham Kennelly in central defence while other new face, winger Bradley Fortnam-Tomlinson, signed from Loughborough Dynamo, was on the bench.

There was also a new face in the dugout.

Fenmen boss Kevin Ward also said his side did not deserve that result: “Scott Goodwin is a very good coach who I had at Oadby Town and who believes in playing football.

“What we’ve worked on this week, knowing the fact that the pitch will be a decent surface, is working in triangles, passages of play and keeping the ball.

“Today was the best football we’ve played this season. Some of the passing has been 16 passes right through from the back four to have a shot on goal.

“That’s how comfortable they were. We were on top of the game.

“Jack Keeble has gone in for a tackle. The player’s kicked back at Jack’s leg and fell over, and they’ve given a penalty.

“I don’t want to be blaming referees every time but we’re just not getting any luck at the moment.

“Even their bench were saying that’s not a penalty.

“We get back with some good passages of play to make it 1-1.

“If we had taken our chances we could have scored eight. That’s the cruelty of football. We had chances to go 2-1 or 3-1 up.

“Late in the second half they whipped in a corner. Two players have gone up for the same ball, missed it and it’s left for their player to put it into the bottom corner.

“That’s a forced error on us that we should have done better with, and we accept that.

“The third goal was against the run of play when were pushing and pushing trying to get into the game.

“For me the minimum is a 2-2 draw. Their management group came up to me and said the score doesn’t reflect how the game was.

“If you take the goals out of the game and showed someone the video, and said: who do you think would win that game, 99.9 per cent of people would turn around and say Wisbech Town won that game.”

On Keeble, who returned to the club for a second spell, Ward added: “Jack is a very relaxed character.

“He’s come to the club and is a breath of fresh air.

“He has got a wealth of experience and has very, very good for us today, but it’s unfortunate a referee’s decision has gone against us.”