JOHN FOWLER believes his team need to work on their concentration levels in the second half of games after Whyteleafe failed to hold onto comfortable leads in all three of their games this week.
After throwing away two-goal leads against Chipstead on New Year's Day, a game that finished in a 4-4 draw, and then Sittingbourne on Saturday, a 3-2 defeat, it was deja vu when East Grinstead Town came back from 3-0 down to 3-2 at Church Road in the League Cup on Tuesday night.
The Wasps looked like they might find an equaliser until their keeper, Seb Bos, received a straight red for bringing down Shawn Lyle. Leafe went on to progress in the cup, putting further three goals past East Grinstead's stand-in keeper, but Fowler admits it's a worry.
"That was a key point in the game," Fowler said of Bos' dismissal. "When they got themselves back in the game at 3-2 I can definitely say I was worried because the two games previously we have been on top, comfortable, and ended up losing or drawing, and I could see the same thing happening.
"We said to the players at half-time about them being mature, managing the game and seeing out results. We are getting ourselves in good positions and dominating games early on, but then we seem to switch off in the second half. We think the job is done and it's not.
"It's a mental thing, it's not fitness. They are fit enough to go for 90 minutes and work and work and work. But they need to apply themselves better mentally because at the moment they have lapses and switch off. You can't do that at this level."
Greg Andrews scored a hat-trick in the 6-2 third round win and while Fowler was pleased with his side's finishing, he believes the Wasps presented Leafe with the majority of the goal-scoring chances.
"That usually happens to us," the Leafe boss said. "We are usually the team that gifts other teams goals, but they gave us a few. Like Tony [Beckingham] will tell you, they gave us some of those goals."
