NANTWICH Town player boss Nigel Gleghorn says his side needs to start getting mean.

The Dabbers crashed to their third straight defeat and out of the FA Cup last Saturday, losing 2-1 at home to Stratford Town.

Both Danny Griggs and Melford Knight had chances to give Nantwich the lead before the visitors scored on four minutes.

Wes Wilkinson smashed home a spectacular equaliser 10 minutes later but Knight's dismissal proved pivotal after the hour mark and Stratford progressed thanks to a second-half winner.

That's three out of three and Gleghorn is quick to admit it wasn't in the plan.

"It's not the start we expected," he said.

"It was a poor performance against Squire Gate even though we could have still nicked something.

"Then I thought the team reacted brilliantly against Curzon and we looked class going forward but the back four were a shambles and cost us valuable points.

"No excuses for Saturday, we were down to 10-men for a lot of it and I thought they were simply the better side."

Pointless before Tuesday night's game against Salford, Gleghorn says it's what happens from now that's important.

"It's the nature of the game," he said.

"It's how you respond that matters. You can't influence what happened in the last game but you can in the next one and that's what we need to do.

"I don't think there is anything drastic, I don't think the attitude's been poor so I can't shout at the players for that.

"We just need a spark and we need to start being mean."