LIAM McDonald say’s his Redditch United players had a collective bad day following their 3-0 defeat at Chippenham Town.

His task now is to lift them for a tough trip to Calor Southern Premier League leaders Hemel Hemstead (3pm) on Saturday followed on Tuesday by a trip to a Burnham (7.45pm) side sitting just three places above the struggling Reds.

Hemel have won eight of their nine strats this term and have yet to drop a point at home underlining the task facing United.

“It was really disappointing, we never really got going at all, we looked lack-lustre up front and didn’t create much which in turn put pressure on the defence.

“It wasn’t about mistakes in certain areas it was just a rare collective bad day as a team.”

McDonald though said the return of Bairoh Conteh was a major plus from an otherwise forgettable away day.

He said; “If we had had Bairoh fit since the start of the season i don’t feel we would have given away some of the goals we have done. He was a massive plus for us winning headers and with the amount of ground he covers.”

“We are looking forward to the Hemel game but we know it will be very difficult. I’m confident if we perform like we can we can win and football is a funny game. People will be taking it as a guaranteed win for Hemel but if they don’t treat us seriously there could be an upset.

“A few of the lads are still adjusting to this level of football so i don’t want to start setting targets and put them under pressure but Hemel starts the next block of ten games - we under-performed in the first ten so we are playing catch up a bit.”

Defender Rikki Bains could be set for a return in the next couple of weeks to bolster a Reds defence which has already conceded 28 league goals this season.

The only other slight doubt is over striker Kyle Patterson, who having only recently returned from injury, has reported having a tight calf.

“I may rest him,” said McDonald. “I don’t want to risk him and have him pull the calf muscle and then be out for six or seven weeks. We have other players in that position so it may be a case of him just training for a couple of weeks.”