Steve Smith wants Bishop’s Stortford to be more ruthless in front of goal as they bid to climb away from the Pitching In Southern League, Premier Central relegation zone.

The manager saw his side lose 1-0 at home to Stratford Town at the weekend despite their opponents finishing the game with nine men.

The visitors had Tionne Critchlow-Woyo sent off after 63 minutes, but went ahead through Kobe Hall 14 minutes later before also having substitute Dan Vann dismissed in the 90th minute.

“We just haven’t got that ruthless streak up front - we can’t put the ball in the net,” said Smith, whose side sit third from bottom ahead of their game at second-placed Bury Town this evening (Tuesday, November 10).

“If you don’t put the ball in the net, other teams are always going to get a chance. It came back to haunt us again - a set piece, we didn’t deal with it, in the net, one chance - and we’ve come away with nothing again.

“That little bit of quality that we need in the final third is just missing at the moment. We just can’t seem to get our noses in front.

“It’s another game that we should have got points. Definitely one, probably overall we deserved three, that’s my opinion.

“You can stand here and say you deserve three, but at the end of the day we’ve lost. It was a very, very frustrating afternoon.”

The Blues are without a fixture this Saturday (November 14) due to scheduled opponents Stourbridge being in FA Trophy action.