Holden: 'We must look in mirror'

SADDLERS defender Dean Holden looked back on the ruins of Tuesday night's cup defeat and admitted the players need to stand up and be counted.

The loss to Lincoln hit the experienced centre-half hard and he insists every player must shoulder the burden of responsibility.

Holden said: "It's never nice to go out of the cup, especially to a team who are lower than you.

"It was an embarrassment really and I don't think we did enough over the two games to merit going through, which is the most disappointing thing.

"When your confidence is low, it is hard to get it going again – you've just to work through it.

"I've had it in the past, you've just got to work hard at your game and get that feel-good factor back about yourself as quick as you can.

"Whether it's making a good tackle or whatever, there's a million things you can do and then build on it – but we're not building on it.

"We're giving poor goals away, obviously that's something we weren't doing earlier in the season.

"We have got quality in the squad – we've shown that. We're just not showing it now on a consistent enough basis.

"That's not me preaching and telling everyone what they've got to do – I'm talking about myself as much as anyone.

"We all have to look in our mirrors – if you look to someone else, and they look to someone else, it's not going to change.

"We all have to look at ourselves and if one of us can improve our game that little bit more, it might help the team and that's what we've got to do."