LOWLY Barwell grabbed their first win in eight to leave Bards’ chief Paul Davis lamenting: “We weren’t good enough.”
Goals in each half from Ash Chambers and Tyrell Waite were sufficient for the Canaries to run up a 2-1 victory.
Lewis Ludford-Ison cut in from the left to reduce the arrears with one-quarter of the game to play, slotting a low shot into the corner of the net.
Stratford were well aware of their poor record at the Crown Skips Stadium and were handily-placed in the league table.
But they started poorly when Waite crossed for Chambers to nod the first after just nine minutes and a goal early in the second half, left the Bards with too much to do.
Stratford chief Paul Davis said: “I don’t think Stratford have ever won here. I said it was a tough test, regardless of form.
“But they’ve brought two players in this week, they’re trying to get out of it.
“We weren’t quite at it in the first half then to conceded as we did, we left ourselves a mountain to climb.
“We have to take our medicine when we are not good enough – and we weren’t quite good enough.”
Stratford came into this on the back of three successive wins and Davis said he couldn’t be too harsh on the players.
The Bards face Bishop’s Stortford away before welcoming Sudbury in ten days’ time.
Davies added: “I’ll review the game but these players have been really good for the large majority of the season.
“We don’t need to react. We’ll review it, and go again.
“We’re not going to win every game. It’s how we bounce back now. We’ve done that before and hopefully we can do that again.”
