Did anyone get a free pint?

[Richard Chown]

Thisiscornwall ©

Sounds like the good old days of Brian Clough!

Falmouth Town Manager Andy Bowker was so disappointed with last week's performance at Street that he made his players buy Falmouth Town's travelling supporters a drink after the game.

Bowker is clearly becoming increasingly frustrated by events at Bickland Park after their latest setback.

Three straight defeats in the league, the FA Carlsberg Vase provided little respite for Bowker's men last weekend as they were beaten 6-2 at Street.

But despite what has so far been a difficult campaign, Bowker remains determined as ever to make a success of his first season in management.

And the Town player-boss will be hoping his players will able to leave their cash in their wallets when they resume league duties at Saltash this weekend.

"We didn't rise to the physical challenge against Street and we just weren't at the races," admitted Bowker.

"It was a hot day but we're not going to use that as an excuse because it was exactly the same for them.

"Every time we looked like getting back into the game we seemed to press the self destruct button.

"One of their goals was an own goal, another was a freak goal when their player went to cross the ball and scored instead. It doesn't seem to be going our way at the moment but we've just got to stay positive and the results will come.

"It was a disappointing day and I thought it was only right that our players bought our fans a drink after the game because they didn't get the performance they deserved for travelling all that way."

Town took just eight fit players to Somerset last weekend, as three were forced to start carrying knocks.

Bowker is currently sidelined with a torn thigh muscle, but such is the extent of Town's current selection problems, he was forced to make up the numbers as a substitute at Street.

The striker will not feature this weekend, although Bowker will welcome back Damon Mulready and Neil Slateford after the pair missed last week's defeat.

"We are doing things in the right way but it's difficult when you don't have a settled squad," said Bowker. "We've lost players to work commitments and injuries have hindered us too. At the moment we have a very light squad.

"We took eight fit players to Street with three carrying injuries.

"We're up against it, but as I've said before, they're a decent bunch, we'll keep working at it and hopefully we'll add a few new faces in the coming weeks."

After failing in his attempts to sign Dan Richardson from Penzance last week, Bowker remains hopeful that he will be able to strengthen his squad in the coming weeks.

He said: "We put a seven-day approach in for Dan Richardson but unfortunately he decided he didn't want to talk to us about a move.

"We know where we need to strengthen and we'll be trying to bring in some new faces in the coming weeks.

"The squad is lacking a bit of experience at the moment and we would like to add a defender, a midfielder and a striker with a bit of experience in the game.

"If the need arises we will look further afield if that's what we need to do to strengthen the team."

Town have fitness doubts over Steve Hawke (knee), Matt Drummond (toe) and Dave Rawlings (groin) for Saturday's trip to Saltash, who won 2-0 in the corresponding league fixture last month.

Saltash have won three of their opening six league games and Bowker said: "They're expected to beat us, which is a good thing in a way. There is still pressure on us but nobody expects us to get anything from the game so we've got nothing to lose.

"I've laid down the law to the players and I will be looking for a good response from them at Saltash."