Long Melford manager Liam Joyce has no regrets after 12-0 defeat to Step 2 Needham Market and says: ‘judge me after next five weeks’

After being walloped 12-0 away to four-in-a-row holders Needham Market in the Endeavour Automotive Suffolk Premier Cup, Long Melford boss Liam Joyce has said his own performance should not be judged until after their key next five games.

The former AFC Sudbury and Braintree Town first-team coach has had a rocky start to life as a manager.

After being the preferred candidate to succeed David Hennessey at Stoneylands, on an interviewed list that is understood by SuffolkNews to have included Thurston’s double-winning boss Martin McConell in the summer, Joyce’s record in charge stands at one win, three draws and nine defeats from 13 league matches.

The six points gained so far leaves Melford one point off the foot of the Thurlow Nunn League Premier Division table having played three more times than basement boys Sheringham, while Joyce’s side also have the worst goal difference in the division with -24 to the Norfolk outfit’s -16.

Now having to pick his bloated squad – having registered an eye-watering 70 players and having used a staggering 49 so far – following what was Step 2 Needham’s club-record victory on Tuesday, he will be looking to end an eight-game winless league run – which continued in a 3-0 loss at Downham Town on Saturday – at home to fourth-from-bottom Heacham tomorrow (3pm).

But with injuries having bitten hard in the opening months of his Stoneylands tenure – inlcuding to goalkeeper Matt Walker (dislocated shoulder) and striker Rayn Gibbs (broken wrist) he says he has no regrets about resting players for Tuesday’s second-round tie, as well as trying to play an expansive game at a Needham side now plying their trade three leagues above, in the Vanarama National League North.

“I didn’t pick my strongest squad because, in all fairness, even with my strongest squad it would have been a tough, tough night and we’ve got an important game at the weekend so I wasn’t going to risk any injury or red cards to any key players,” he said.

“I know the league is the most important thing to me, whether people agree with that or not, that’s just how it is.”

Three trialists started in the game , which included 20-year-old former Queens Park Rangers youth Shannon Brown, a former Tottenham Hotspur academy player listed as a midfielder online who featured at right wing-back. Striker Jordan Junor and wide player Anthony Wilberforce McDonald were the others.

And, due to injuries, 18-year-old Harrison Crowther, who came in as cover a few weeks ago from Bishop’s Stortford, was left exposed time and time again, with Needham scoring seven, including four for Luke Ingram, in the first half.

Melford did go close to getting on the scoresheet in the second half but lively teenage sub Josh Fenton Jones was denied by both a good save and an outstanding last-ditch tackle.

Having said in his interview with Suffolk FA that he would not ‘park the bus’ and would ‘give it a go’, Joyce does not regret his approach, believing there were positives, like Fenton Jones’ display, that he can take from the night.

“Listen, there’s no excuses from me really,” he said, “but all I can say is I had my own game plan on what I wanted to do with my team.

“Unfortunately I’m going to get slapped in the face because it looks an absolute romping, which it was.

“But even with a full-strength squad, let’s get it straight, I think we still would have probably lost by around four or five, surely.”

However, in an interesting parallel just 12 months ago, Hennessey’s full-strength side at Needham ran the champions close in a 3-2 defeat where Melford had gone into a 2-0 lead.

Joyce pointed out it was against an outfit playing a level lower, though they would go on and romp to AFC Sudbury’s division. And Tuesday’s side only included one player, AFC Sudbury’s Ben Hunter, who was not part of Kevin Horlock’s title-winners.

With a key run of league games to now come, Joyce feels the time to judge him will soon come, but is not now.

“All I’d say is, in the next five weeks, if people want to judge me then, after we’re playing teams around us, then fair enough. Do you know what? I’ll put my hands up and go, absolutely fair enough.

“Imagine if we don’t lost in the next four? Football can be fickle.”