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10:42am Thursday 9th October 2008

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WHEN goalkeeper Lee Williams sent his manager Nick Oxford a text message suggesting he be dropped from the side, his boss did not know what to say at first.

That message was sent on Saturday night in the wake of Monmouth Town’s 4-3 loss to Seven Sisters. Confessing to a poor game between the sticks, Williams was adamant he should be axed.

But an hour later Oxford simply encouraged his out-of-form stopper to pull his socks up and get back to training.

He said: “Lee texted me afterwards to say ‘There’s no way I should be in the side’.

“I didn’t reply straight away. I thought about it and told him not to beat himself up too much.

“Yes, it was a disastrous performance but all you can do is get on with it.

“He’s made some incredible saves before, like at Porthcawl last year he made some of the most incredible saves I’ve ever seen. But he’s very much down on his confidence and that’s the worst thing for a goalkeeper.”

Oxford was equally frank in admitting that Williams’ errors cost his side dearly in this Welsh League Third Division defeat. Town are scoring freely despite their lowly position but their goals against column speaks volumes.

The manager added: “We were talking about that last weekend. If you look at the teams around us they’re conceding loads whereas we’re making the same mistakes as last year, losing every game by a single goal.

“It’s not ideal but at least we know what we have to do to turn it around. When we battered Merthyr 5-0 we had to work for every goal, but we’re giving too many away for free.”

Town were 3-0 down inside 11 minutes at home on Saturday but goals from Matthew Bowen (2) and Andrew Smith got them back level. They were probing for a winner in the second half when Williams goofed again, and “that was that”, said Oxford.

He continued: “Dean Palmer came on and had a good shot from 30 yards but it was tipped over the bar by their ‘keeper. That was the difference between the two sides.”

Williams’ main challenger for the gloves is Johnny Roberts – but he is currently playing outfield for the third XI much to Oxford’s dismay.

He added: “He’s hopefully going to be stepping in against Risca next week when Lee is unavailable. But what I’d like to see is him playing in goal for the seconds and making it clear he wants the spot back.

“He’s a good ‘keeper but Lee came in last year and did really well. The problem is he’s lacking in confidence at the moment and Johnny needs to prove he’s better .”