Harwood-Bellis on “upsetting” defeat

Kevin Schade’s goal after six minutes separated the sides after a slow first half, before a Bryan Mbeumo double after the break put the game beyond doubt.

A disappointing afternoon was made worse when Keane Lewis-Potter and Yoane Wissa struck deep into stoppage time to leave Harwood-Bellis to reflect on a third straight defeat.

“Didn’t see it coming,” the defender began. “It’s upsetting that we went out and that happened. It’s not nice.

"Just didn't feel like we were aggressive enough. Didn't feel like we had that intensity that we've had in the last three games. It shows that when we do turn up with intensity and we are aggressive that we’re always in the game, today was nowhere near it.

“I think with some boys confidence might be low in there, but I actually don’t think it’s about confidence at the minute, I think it's about digging in and grinding a result out or being aggressive, that's not confidence. That's just having your own pride, which the boys have. We do have it, which is why it's such a hard one to take.”

With league action pausing for a fortnight to allow for an Emirates FA Cup third round tie against Swansea next weekend, Harwood-Bellis remains confident manager Ivan Jurić can rectify things in training.

“Training has been competitive. We run like dogs in training, we’re aggressive, we get up to people and stay with runners and things like that, but that just didn’t happen today.

“The manager will have us running, as I said. We’ll be running like animals next week which is what we need. We’re going to have to come in and if we need to get fitter then we need to get fitter and be able to stay with our runners then we will, the manager will do that. He's all about intensity and being aggressive and pressing and being efficient on the ball. So, I'm pretty sure he’ll sort it out in training.”