Hucknall Town boss Andy Graves calls on side to cut out the errors

The Yellows chucked away a 3-0 lead against Sandiacre Town on Wednesday night as they were held to a 3-3 draw.

It left Graves once again disappointed by the sloppy nature of the goals conceded.

“We were 3-0 up after about 12 mins and playing at a good tempo and then we imploded with three mistakes,” he said.

“A poor backpass, a penalty with a rash challenge, and a mis-placed pass cost us.

“They had chances to win it, we had chances to win it. You don’t win anything in pre-season, but we need to cut those errors out.

“It is all I’ve said in pre-season, we are guilty of too many mistakes and it is something we need to get rid of quickly.

“They have just started to creep in. It is a lack of concentration that is costing us.

“It is something we talked about before the game and again after the game as it happened again (mistakes) last week.

“The players will need to improve on the Sandiacre Town performance, it is a bit of a wake up call.

“As a manager what can you do?, you cannot legislate for individual mistakes.

"They are coming from players you wouldn’t expect them to come from.

“That is how football goes, it is never straightforward.”

Graves was also dealt a big blow this week with the news that Grant Ryan will be suspended for the first nine games of the season for disciplinary reasons.

“We were not planning on him missing all those games and it has not done me any favours, I have got to try and find a new striker now,” added Graves.

“We have to now try and find someone to form a new partnership with Craig Westcarr.

“We only have one game to do that before the season starts.

“The players we wanted have gone now and are with other teams and we will have to use the squad we have got.

“It has given me a headache I didn’t want. I was quite happy with how pre-season was going until that news.

“We know that we have got bodies to come back which is good news.”

Town begin the new United Counties League Division One campaign against Lutterworth Athletic on August 8.

They then travel to West Bridgford six days later before visiting Radford on August 21

And Graves admits he cannot wait to get started.

“It is good to start with a home game and we hope to get off to a good start,” he said.

“We are all starting on the same points on day one. We want a good start and to be positive

“We don’t know a lot about Lutterworth to be honest, but I am sure they will be competitive.

“It feels like we have been at it for a long time because we came back fairly early and have been playing a lot of games.

“It is exciting to be in a new league. As far as I am concerned we are starting at step six for the first time.

“We have had a couple of trial goes at it but half the league is totally different.

“We want to be competitive, but it is not going to be easy.

"There are play-offs this year so everyone is going to be competitive for longer.”