Bishops Cleeve’s captain Matt Liddiard admitted his side were nowhere near good enough following the disappointing 5-1 loss to neighbours Hartpury FC on Tuesday night.
A cold Tuesday saw a clash between two sides who very much have their sights set on promotion this season.
It was a nightmare start for The Mitres, which saw them go 1-0 down after just two minutes on the clock, with Noah Coates getting on the scoresheet in rapid time, turning home from six yards.
Despite the quick-fire start, the first half ended with neither side really managing to muster anything up, with the home-side taking a slim lead into the break.
It was then Bishops Cleeve who managed to find an equaliser, Cleeve’s number 11 Aaron Evans-Harriott slotted home nicely to give Paul Collicutt the response he would’ve wanted.
However the leveller was soon after cancelled out, as four minutes later, Hartpury retook the lead after Drew Robinson’s finish crept in off the far post.
The Acorns from then on turned on the gas, with Nathan Jenkins guiding his effort into the far corner extending the home team’s advantage.
The nutmeg, the drive, the finish. đź‘Ź Nathan with our third against Bishops Cleeve. #hartpury | #Acorns https://t.co/O6STlPy9zs
— Hartpury FC (@Hartpury_FC) November 11, 2026
Three quickly became four as a low cross found an unmarked Daf Hyett at the back post who made no mistake.
With five minutes left of the 90, Hartpury then made it five, after a poor clearance fell to Louis Manning he lifted the ball over the keeper from 25-yards and into the net.
It was a cold and wet evening in Gloucestershire, but Liddiard was keen to say it wasn’t a condition issue and much more of a team problem.
“We can’t use that as an excuse, the pitch was in good nick considering the time of year.
“They’re able to play some good football, switch the play and create overloads in certain areas so I don’t want to use that (the conditions) as an excuse.”
Defeats are always tough to take in football, especially a 5-1 score-line, and when asked about keeping the team united he claimed; “You want the next game to be sooner rather than later to try and get that out your system.
“We’ll stick together and look to bounce back on Saturday. We’ve still got plenty of games to play, so it’ll turn for us.” The defender then added.
Some shots from last night. 📸 #hartpury | #Acorns https://t.co/JO0yOEqBsy
— Hartpury FC (@Hartpury_FC) November 11, 2026
The defeat now sees The Mitres sit in 10th place, four points off sixth placed Hartpury and with the table starting to take place, Liddiard gave his thoughts on the next run of games.
“We’ve got a lot of time to turn it around, but those games start to get less and less, so we have to turn it round sooner rather than later.
“There’s lots of big games coming up against teams at the top of the table and they’re the ones we want to stay with and compete with, we don’t want to be midtable or the bottom half.”
The captain then finished with “We don’t want to be chasing, we want to be the ones that are being chased, so this poor form we have to turn around quickly.”
Bishops Cleeve now find themselves travelling to Tiverton on Saturday as they aim to put things right.
