To say last Saturday’s result at Accrington was a hard one to take would be an understatement.

Reflecting on the game during the long journey home, embarrassing was a word that came into my thoughts a lot.

No one would have seen that scoreline coming after the recent good run of results in which it seemed we had found a new, resilient side.

As I said last week, when you play at places like Accrington you have to be mentally prepared, to roll up your sleeves and be ready to work your socks off. That is something that the manager can’t instil into a player and there were too many individual errors. It’s not about blaming individuals, though, we are a team and Saturday was nowhere near good enough from anybody.

The game was frustrating as we twice put ourselves in a position to win, after going 1-0 down to come back and score two in three minutes. I was delighted to score my first goals of the season and I hope there are more to come. The first goal celebration was just to remind everyone that there is plenty of life in this apparent "old man."

Silly errors saw us undo all our hard work and we ended up in the dressing room 3-2 down.

After half-time Cody scored a fantastic individual goal but from 3-3, within minutes, we found ourselves 5-3 down due to two penalties.

I don’t care what anybody says, the referee has done us over with those decisions.

For the first one I tracked their player, just making sure he didn’t get in front of me, there was a coming together and their lad fell over. I couldn’t believe it when the referee pointed to the spot.

The second penalty was a joke. I was right behind Josh and he clearly played the ball. I’m by no means trying to excuse our performance by blaming the referee but those decisions changed the outcome.

My eventful afternoon ended when the referee decided to send me off for nothing more than a bit of ‘handbags.’ I was silly to get involved but when you see one of your team-mates getting kicked when the ball is away from them, you react. I come from an era where you protect your team-mates. I couldn’t confront the offender as their assistant manager decided to stop me in my tracks. There was a bit of pushing but it quickly came under order. As soon as their assistant was sent from the bench I knew I was in a spot of bother after picking up a yellow card for the ‘foul’ for the penalty.

So, how do we deal with this defeat? Trust me, the players and management are hurting and we have been working hard. We have had a few home truths and they are not always nice to hear but it clears the air.

There is no point in sulking and moping around, it’s time for everybody to step up.

We are an honest and talented squad who want to fight to get back to League 1. This is an open league and we still have time to get our season going but we can’t keep saying this, it’s time now!

We welcome Stockport to Priestfield this weekend, where we will be going all out for a good performance, and certainly a win, to maintain our good results at home and hopefully repay our supporters, especially the ones who, despite our away record at the moment, still dedicate themselves to showing great support.