Hippolyte concedes Maidenhead United were second best against Bishop's Stortford

Manager Johnson Hippolyte conceded his side were outworked from the first whistle in their 3-1 defeat to Bishop’s Stortford at York Road.

The home side never really got going and fell behind when Frankie Merrifield turned home Joe Tabiri’s cross in the 22^nd minute.

The Magpies briefly threatened a recovery when Dave Tarpey thrashed home De’Reece Vanderhyde’s low cross on 50 minutes to make it 1-1, but two goals in as many minutes from Sheldon Sellears and substitute Mikel Suarez turned the game in Stortford’s favour.

“It was the worst performance we’ve had in 10-12 games,” conceded Hippolyte.

“I can’t remember the last time we were as poor as that.

“From the first minute to the last minute.”

Despite his disappointment Hippolyte defended his ‘tired’ players.

“The only thing I’ll say in their defence is that we had some tired bodies out there,” he said.

“Hutch (Eddie Hutchinson) pulled his hamstring. Harry Pritchard was limping at the end of the game and De’Reece who hasn’t played a lot of football, has played his third game in a short space of time.

“Apart from that we were poor, and outworked from the first minute. They won the first ball, they won the second ball. They were fighting for their lives and I told the boys they’d be doing that before the game.

Hippolyte added: “They thoroughly deserved to win the game. It’s another one where we’ve had chances which we didn’t take but over the 90 minutes, we’ve got no complaints.”

United will get the chance to turn around what’s becoming an increasingly disappointing season when they host Chesham United in the semi finals of the Berks and Bucks Cup on Tuesday night, 7.45pm. The Magpies then host St Albans City at York Road in the league on Saturday.