I just hope we can get things up and running and get to Ladywell as soon as possible, says Forest Hill Park manager Darrell Queeley

FOREST HILL PARK manager Darrell Queeley says he will take their 4-1 defeat at Sporting Club Thamesmead last night on his chin.

Aaron Jeffery’s side rose to the summit of the Southern Counties East Football League First Division table for the first time in his eighth game in charge of the club after winning their seventh game in a row.

Two goals from Acre substitute Merrick Simms, 21, inside the final nine minutes gave the home side a flattering 4-1 win, but Queeley admitted a tactical error on his part made the difference as his team were left open in a 4-3-3 formation.

“I said to the boys I’ll take the 4-1 on the chin. The 4-1 is not them, the 4-1 is me throwing the dice,” admitted Queeley.

“We’ll go home and we’ll work out why we were 2-1 down and what we could do better at that point next time but we can stand here and talk about the last two goals but we were just wide open and trying to get back into the game and throwing the kitchen sink and on the counter with the fresher pair of legs up against an exhausted centre-back (Tyriq Grant).”

Forest Hill Park remain in eleventh-place in the table with seven points on the board from seven league outings.

The club have played all of their games away from home with pitch issues at Ladywell Arena preventing games to be played at the venue.

Queeley said: “I don’t know too much about what’s going on at Ladywell. We haven’t been there but I know there are some things that are above me and I’m not really qualified or in a position to discuss why we haven’t been at home so far this season.

“I just hope we can get things up and running and get to Ladywell as soon as possible.

“It is tough. When you’re playing at home you get used to the grass, you get used to the corners, you get used to everything. The size of the pitch, the penalty spots, the distances from wing-to-wing from box-to-box and to be playing on a different sized pitch, different dimensions, different angles every week, it’s hard to get consistency but at the back end of the season I’m sure there will be a run of home games and we can take advantage of so we’ll just look forward to that.”

Without a game at the weekend, Queeley takes his side to highflyers Holmesdale on Saturday 7 November and to second-placed Kennington seven days later.

“Another tough one, I think it’s Kennington after that as well, so it’s the top three back-to-back,” said Queeley.

“We will relish those games, we must do more with the ball in the final third in those two games and I won’t be doing what I did for the last 10 minutes.

“It’s really tough. I don’t like to lose any game, I don’t like to draw any games, I try to win them all but I would’ve learned something from last night.

“The last 10 minutes was 100% unnecessary. We could’ve maybe nicked something instead of throwing everything at it. I could’ve maybe waited for the last three or four minutes to do that but it did feel like we were on top and we could’ve nicked something.

“That was a little bit naive and it just didn’t work out so we're going to stick to what was working for longer periods of time and hopefully we’ve got a break so those players can get fit.”

Queeley was forced to withdraw both of his wing-backs, Reece Caine (hip); Kris Queeley (calf) at half-time and lost attacking midfielder Mason Saunders-Henry in the final 15 minutes with a hamstring pull and they had no time to recover after Saturday’s 1-1 draw in Dartford against Kent Football United.