Head coach Mark Bradshaw:

This was something that can just come out of the blue, based on recent years we have always done better playing away than at home.

Speaking after the Chester game regarding the improvement of home performances, I’ve set myself up by saying that – it’s not just something this season, but in general over previous season’s it’s something Curzon have and will continue to aim to improve on.

Teams turn up to the Tameside Stadium, see the pitch and think ‘let’s play ball’ – today was the turn of Merthyr, they are a good team anyway, but today they turn into a very good team.

We are three games in and have a new team who are still getting used to playing together – our performances so far have consisted of highs that are really high and lows that are really low and there’s no in-between.

Missing the leadership of Jimmy & Chris Stokes (who still hasn’t recovered from a niggle at Chester) was a big loss on the pitch today, especially Chris’s experience, voice and organisation skills at the back.

Update on Jordan Richards – having spoken to the physio she’s indicated that it looks like a bad hamstring strain and he could be out for 4/6 weeks – we’ll continue monitoring and ensure he has a good rehab plan/does his rehab correctly.

Looking ahead to Buxton on Monday, it will be another tough game they are a full-time team with an massive budget and we’re not in the same position as them.

We’ve got such a new group and we’ve got three senior players out so it take a bit of a toll, and we are asking these new players some of which are relatively inexperienced to step-up to the occasion.

Captain Marcus Poscha:

We showed them too much respect and we were too passive all over the pitch, but we’ve spoken about it, we know what we’ve done wrong and it’s about putting it right on Monday.

The ball kept turning over too easily and when we did get forward we lacked quality in the final third.

Talking about the fact turnaround ahead of Monday’s game against Buxton:

There’s no time to dwell on it, the management will watch the game back, the lads will watch it back as well and pick up little things, they know what they’ve done wrong.