BOSS Martin Thomas was left to rue missed chances as Lye Town suffered their third consecutive Midlands League defeat with a 2-1 loss to Highgate United.

The Stourbridge Road outfit fell behind to a Luke Paskin own goal in the 75th minute, but Jack Till quickly equalised for the home side before Orrin Pendley scored the Highgate winner on 83 minutes.

Lye's co-manager Thomas hopes his side will move on quickly from the game and pick up a positive result against Quorn on Saturday.

Thomas said: “It was one of those games. I told the players at the end of the match to forget about it and move on to the next game.

“I’m not putting the loss down to anything – the players, the pitch, the referee – and we can’t say the performance wasn’t decent.

“It is about missed chances? Possibly. We could’ve had two or three goals but we just haven’t been putting them away.

“But these things equal themselves out over the course of a season. Some of the wins we picked up at the start of the season probably should have been draws.

“The lad’s heads aren’t down and the spirit in training this week has been high, so we will go again and hope to get at least a point off Quorn.

“We’re back at home and hope the pitch isn’t as heavy as it was at the weekend, because it’s harder to get the ball down and play.

“We are not a bad side on a good surface. Whether we can adapt to different surfaces, I don’t know.

“We need to get out in front with an early goal, but that’s going to be harder now that Ryan Rowe pulled up in training on Tuesday.”

The striker will be absent from Saturday’s game, as will Sam Tye (business), while Matt Johnson is a doubt for the side who will now have to try and fend off an advancing Sporting Khalsa for third spot in the premier division table.