Spalding United are beaten by Bedworth United in the Northern Premier League

Manager Elliot Sandy questioned the attitude and application of his players in their first half performance at Bedworth United on Saturday.

The Tulips went down to a 2-1 defeat against the Greenbacks in their Northern Premier League Midlands Division match.

Their 13th-placed hosts scored twice in the opening period to lay the foundations of a victory which dented Spalding's title hopes.

Sandy said: "We cannot perform in the first 45 minutes like we did on Saturday.

"I've said all along from pre-season until now that I don't question the ability and the quality which we have in the squad.

"It's all down to attitude and how you're going to apply yourselves in a game and that's my only worry.

"I don't know if we turned up thinking that Bedworth were a team out of form and we were just going to roll them over.

"I said before the game that Bedworth have got a lot of top players and their league position and form isn't them. They should be doing better.

"We gave away two goals in the first 45 minutes and looked all over the place."

Spalding had created the best two chances of the opening exchanges with Dan Sweeney narrowly failing to convert a Riley O'Sullivan cross while the striker saw a lob drop agonisingly wide of the home goal after a fine pass from Kyle Barker.

The hosts then hit the front just past the half-hour mark when Desean Martin rose unchallenged to head home at the back post.

Worse was to follow seven minutes later for the Tulips as Leo Stone struck Bedworth's second goal after some poor Spalding defending.

That sparked two Spalding changes with Jordan Graham and James Clifton replacing Lamine Sherif and Sam Bennett.

They did halve the deficit after 65 minutes when Clifton curled home a direct free-kick into the Bedworth net.

However, despite more showing attacking promise, they were unable to force an equaliser as Bedworth held out for the win.

Sandy added: "We made changes early after the second goal and changed it up in the second half and, to be fair to them, I got the reaction which I wanted.

"We were on top for the whole second half. They were barely in our half but they had the two goals so they didn't need to do anything extra.

"We got the goal and, in my opinion, we had chances in the second half to get something from the game but that bit of quality which we were lacking throughout has cost us."

The defeat now leaves second-placed Spalding four points behind league leaders Harborough Town who have a game in hand.

The Tulips host fourth-placed Loughborough Dynamo on Saturday.