Head coach Giles Heagerty was left disappointed after his Macclesfield team travelled to second-bottom Cinderford and failed to come away with anything.
The Blues were picked apart in the first quarter of the game by a fluid Cinderford attack and eventually fell to a 42-5 defeat.
“I’m disappointed by that performance,” admitted Heagerty. “The first try was a little fluky but ultimately the tries have come from us missing tackles and you can’t miss tackles in National One.
“We’ve kept the ball in the second half, and it wasn’t pretty but we’ve shown we can grind things out. But overall I’m disappointed.”
The Blues certainly played a lot better in the second half and restricted their hosts to a single score after starving them of possession but Macclesfield themselves struggled to break through a stern Cinderford defence.
“We talked about what we had to change at half-time and the boys did that,” continued the head coach. “But we had opportunities to score but we made mistakes which stopped us from getting anywhere.
“Every time we put ourselves in a good position we turned the ball over, which is unforgivable.
“A number of players had very poor games. We are in a position where we need things to click on a regular basis and that didn’t happen for us today.”
The Blues were without regular scrum-half Jordan Brookes on Saturday, Tom Eaton replacing him at nine, but Ollie Chambers returned from his travels in Canada and filled a spot on the bench.
And the head coach was pleased with the impact Chambers had after coming on at half-time, adding: “We always planned to get him involved; he’s been away in Canada.
“It was a shame we had to get him involved as early as we did.
“He came on and he played superbly, he’s not been with us for six to eight weeks and he’s come in and played very well under pressure.
“Tom used to be a nine and he is capable of working there, it’s just a shame he got a bump early.”
Now at the halfway point of the season the Blues remain bottom of the League One table.
It’s been a tough campaign for Macclesfield so far following their promotion to the third tier but they’ll look to pick up on Saturday before resting over the festive period and then preparing to host Esher on January 3.
And ahead of their trip to Fylde this weekend in their final game of 2014 Heagerty admits that his team must improve if they’re to avoid embarrassment.
“People are starting to feel sorry for themselves – there is no time for that, and I certainly do not have time for that,” added Heagerty. “It’s time for them to front up, we have a culture of no excuses and we need to get a grip of that, otherwise it could be a very tough day at the office.”
