By James Barrett

Carshalton Athletic manager Tommy Williams says his side must eliminate giving themselves “mountains to climb” as the Robins narrowly lost out 2-1 against Hendon on Saturday.

A sluggish start and two down before 20 minutes meant a goal just before the break, despite a better second half performance, was not enough to earn even the point that would have lifted Carshalton off the bottom of the Ryman Premier League for the first time in months.

“As well as we started against Kingstonian last week, we did the exact opposite against Hendon and it ultimately cost us the game,” Williams said.

“We were two down before we started playing and we cannot afford to be giving teams head starts.”

Nathaniel Pinney hit his 11th goal from the penalty spot after on-loan debutant Jerome Walker was felled on the stroke of half-time, but it only counted as mere consolation come full-time.

“We played better in the second–half but the game became so even that neither goalkeeper had much to do,” he added.

“We were also on the wrong end of some confusing decisions, like not getting anything when their goalkeeper caught Ola Sogbanmu in the head during the first-half. That could’ve easily been another penalty on another day.”

Left back Luke Nolan was forced off after just six minutes but Williams believes his ankle injury will not mean a long-term lay off.

“There will be plenty of twists and turns left before the end of the season. People point to our 'games played' column as a negative but we have a good team spirit here and a lot of belief,” he said.

“The lads were disappointed after this defeat but I’ll pick them up in the week and we look forward to the next game.”

Carshalton Athletic travel to play-off hopefuls Canvey Island on Saturday.