HIGHWORTH boss John Fisher admitted his team ‘threw the towel in’ after going 2-0 down in Saturday’s game at home to Reading.

The struggling Worthians eventually lost the Hellenic Premier encounter 3-0 courtesy of a brace from Tranel Richardson and a goal from Graham Lewis, the latter recently returned from high-flyers Marlow.

Bradley Clark failed to convert a penalty for the hosts when they were 1-0 down early in the second half, and Reading made sure of victory late on.

And boss Fisher said: “The performance wasn’t that bad but when we went 2-0 down, heads went down and we threw the towel in.

“That isn’t what I expect from a team run by myself and Kevin (Moloney, assistant).

“I always tell my players that I don’t mind if we get beat if they give me a shift.

“Too many players threw the towel in but I suppose that’s life and it helps you find out who your characters are.

“It shouldn’t have been 3-0, that’s for sure. We had a lot of the ball in the first half, but the keeper made a couple of good saves and they hit us on the break.

“Second half we had a lot of the ball and missed a penalty and then they scored twice in the last 10 minutes.

“Maybe if we had scored the penalty that would have got us back in it. Their keeper had just come in from Oxford United and they had a good right-back who apparently is on loan from Hayes.

“If they had had a keeper from this level of football then maybe one or two of our efforts would have gone in.

“But I can’t gripe about the players they have been able to get in, I would do the same if I could.”

Fisher remains in positive mood despite his team’s latest setback, revealing that players and management needed to ‘dig in’ as they go in search of all-important league points.

“We’ve got another 30 games left and if we win those we win the league,” he joked.

“We’ve got Highmoor next week and they lost 6-0 today so I expect it will be 1-1 on Saturday.

“We’ve just got to dig in and try and improve.

“If it was easy everyone would be doing it.

“I don’t like losing but it’s done and dusted and we’ve got to move on.”