Soham Town Rangers manager Lance Key ‘disgusted’ by first-half display in 3-2 defeat at Sheringham

Manager Lance Key was ‘disgusted’ with Soham Town Rangers’ first-half display during their 3-2 defeat at Sheringham on Saturday.

In what was their first outing of 2025, the Greens found themselves three goals down at half-time to a side that had won just once in the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division season prior to kick off.

And while two Ryan Sharman goals after the restart offered Soham hope of salvaging something from the contest, ultimately the damage was done during the opening 45 minutes.

Key, who was appointed Soham boss in early November, has stressed that such performances are ‘not acceptable’.

He told the club’s YouTube channel: “I’m hugely disappointed and if I’m honest I’m disgusted with the first-half performance.

“We had deja vu in a way from the first game (versus Sheringham) where we could have been 3-0 down to them at half-time – and today we were. We were very poor defensively in the first half.

“It was against the run of play when we conceded that first goal, but once we conceded it was a house of horrors.

“I’m not going to sugar-coat it because I can’t, that’s not acceptable.

“I’ve been here two-and-a-half to three months and that’s happening too many times where we don’t start well enough and we’re giving teams the ascendancy.

“It wasn’t good enough in that first half and they got told that at half-time.

“You can always say great, they responded in the second half and did what we asked of them. We said win the second half, keep a clean sheet, which we did.

“But we just expressed that when you come to places like this after a long journey, mentally you have to be right – and by our first-half performance we weren’t right.”

Both Jonny Hall and Seth O’Neil made their Soham debuts in the loss, having recently arrived from Eynesbury Rovers and Mildenhall Town respectively.

The duo could now feature at Julius Martin Lane on Saturday when Soham host Cornard United (3pm).

Both teams are locked on 29 points apiece but Key’s 11th-placed men are one position higher by virtue of their superior goal difference, although Cornard hold three games in hand.