Hume dismayed after gifting Curzon victory

Matlock handed Curzon all three of their goals on a plate and, with results elsewhere not favouring the Gladiators either, Hume was left feeling at his worst since he took over the managerial hot seat at the Autoworld Arena in January.

“Saturday was the most gutted I’ve felt at Matlock,” Hume admitted.

“We killed ourselves, there’s no excuses, our mistakes were so poor, it was unbelievable by my standards.

“I was just an average centre-half in non-league football but I didn’t make mistakes like that. All we had to do was the simple things like clearing the ball.

“We’ve got to make sides work for their goals. On Saturday it was far too easy for Curzon. Since I’ve been here no-one has cut us open, we’ve gifted sides a lot of the goals from free kicks, set pieces or from mistakes. Everyone can see that.”

Any pre match plans Hume had instigated were blown away inside 18 seconds when Curzon went ahead.

Hume added: “After 20 seconds we were on the back foot so what we had planned went out of the window. We’ve some young lads here, and believe me, I’m all for having young players but I think we need a couple of players with that bit of experience, not old ex-professionals but someone around 27 or 28-years-old who knows the game and what it takes to be successful at this level.”

“I have so much belief in the players we have as we have good players here and that makes it hurt all the more.

“We need to cut out the errors sand take our chances, then we’ll be fine. I couldn’t fault the general performance in the first-half but I’m not down for losing, I’d rather play rubbish and win, but if we can play good football as well, all the better.”

A tough Easter programme is on the horizon with a trip to seventh-placed Barwell on Saturday before ninth-placed Buxton are at the Autoworld Arena on Easter Monday afternoon for a tasty derby.

Hume and his managerial team of Grant Black and Scott Maxfield are all former Bucks while the visitors should include former Matlock striker Shaun Tuton.

“I didn’t get carried away when we won five in the league on the bounce as I had an inkling we wouldn’t carry that winning run on in the same way, but when I saw the fixtures we had coming but I did expect a few more points,” Hume said.

“No doubt about it, we should have won at Whitby and got a point from the Workington and Ashton games.

“But it’s still in our hands, I’ve got a lot of belief in the lads and I know they can do it.”

Transfer deadline day in the Evo-Stik League saw just one addition to Hume’s squad with 27-year-old former Sheffield United midfielder Nicky Travis arriving from NCEL Premier outfit Handsworth Parramore.

Hume said: “We’ve had our eye on him for a while. Scott Maxfield knows him quite well having been with him at Handsworth. He’s my type of player, he can get about the field, works hard and has something about him. He hasn’t played for six weeks so needs to come up to speed with this league but he gives us extra options.”

Hume should have a fully fit squad for the Easter programme with Adam Yates now back in contention and Grant Black having recovered from an achilles injury.