Salford boss Peter Cklamovski admitted his side felt “embarrassed” after they slumped to an underwhelming 3-1 defeat at Barnet on the opening day of the League Two season.
The 47-year-old, who resigned following an 18-month stint in charge of the Malaysian national team to take up his first job in English football at Salford in June, explained he was not “surprised” by the threat Barnet posed.
Instead, the 47-year-old said his team failed to “execute or perform to the standard that we hold ourselves to,” and apologised to the Ammies fans who made the journey down to North West London.
Barnet ended last season in fine form, going unbeaten in their final nine games to finish eighth in League Two and they picked up where they left off by starting brightly at the sun-drenched Hive Stadium.
Goals from Oisin Gallagher and Charlie Lakin put the Bees two goals up at the break as Salford were punished for slack defending.
Kabongo Tshimanga added a third for the hosts to make sure of victory three minutes from time before Adebola Oluwo headed home Joe Powell’s cross to give Salford supporters a consolation goal to cheer in the 90th minute.
Cklamovski’s baptism of fire at Barnet comes after a summer of sweeping change at Salford, with a host of new signings reshaping the squad.
Luke Molyneux, Joe Powell and Macaulay Langstaff each played at a higher level than League Two last season for Doncaster Rovers, Rotherham United and Millwall respectively.
It is to be expected that the side will take time to gel under their new boss, but Cklamovski believes the avoidable nature of their mistakes means they can be addressed quickly.
“We’re disappointed that we couldn’t handle the game the way we wanted to and that’s what’s put us in a difficult position during the match, he said. “We gave away a couple of soft goals which will hurt us.
“You can’t win games like that. It’s easy to fix, let’s say; that’s a simple part of the game we’ve just got to be better at, which will allow us to get our game going and today we just couldn’t get that happening.”
The Australian coach described all three goals as “preventable” and said his players were left hurt and ashamed by their disappointing opening day performance.
“We’re embarrassed actually, and so we should be because that’s not who we are and whoever watched this game is not a reflection of who we want to be.
“That’s got to hurt everybody; that hurts me and it’ll hurt all the players equally as well.”
Cklamovski believes there is no need for a “hard adjustment” one game into a 46-game season, saying defeat will fuel his side to improve ahead of their first home game of the campaign against Chesterfield.
“We’ll use that as fuel to focus on the week ahead and make sure that we show who we are next week.”
“We have just got to zip it up, cop it, apologise to our fans that travelled because we sent them home absolutely disappointed and hurting just like we are.”
