BAFFLED boss Paul Collicutt ordered Evesham United to “man up” on the back of last night’s madcap 7-4 defeat to Stratford Town.

The Robins fought back from behind through an own goal and Adam Mann's strike to lead within eight minutes but trailed 3-2 after 18 and endured a 15-minute delay following a floodlight failure.

Goals either side of the interval made it 5-2 before substitutes Lewis Powell and Carl Brown netted in back-to-back minutes.

However, matters slipped away from United when Jazz Luckie scored his fourth of the night five minutes from the end, adding to a pair of sublime Ben Stephens free-kicks. Edwin Ahenkorah rounded off the scoring in added time.

REPORT: Evesham United 4 Stratford Town 7 

“When you score four goals you expect to win,” said Collicutt. “They scored two good free-kicks but the other five were unacceptable and somehow I have to put it right. I have to do something.

“I have been involved in plenty of games over the years and that was one of the more eventful ones. Some of the defending that went on was not the best from either side.

“We go to Salisbury on Saturday and we need to man up because some of the goals we conceded were woeful.

“We had a long chat in the changing room about some of it. It was poor defending and there were too many individual mistakes.

“Five of the goals were down to individuals and could have been stopped.

“Sometimes you learn more about a player when you have a defeat like that than you do when you’re winning.

"I have a lot of food for thought between now and Saturday."