Williamson left frustrated as Gateshead fall to home defeat against Altrincham

Gateshead manager Mike Williamson admitted his side ‘didn’t get to the levels they wanted’ during Saturday’s home defeat against Altrincham.

The Heed went into the game without former Sunderland and Middlesbrough forward Stephen Wearne as he served a one-match suspension and recent loan addition Kyran Lofthouse, who is currently under concussion protocols after suffering an injury in last weekend’s loss at Bromley.

Williamson and his side were left frustrated by several questionable decisions by referee Paul Marsden and fourth official Scott Henry, who replaced the man in the middle when he was forced out of the action with an injury just after the half-hour mark.

Despite those debatable decisions, there is little doubt it was the visitors that deserved to take all three points from their visit to the International Stadium as a Justin Amaluzor strike in the early stages of the second-half and a controversial late effort from former Darlington winger Justin Donawa helped the Robins leapfrog Williamson’s men and climb into fourth place in the National League table.

Speaking after the game, the Heed boss told The Echo: “We didn’t get to the levels we wanted to and we usually do.

“You can reflect on chances and decisions that went against us but ultimately you have to look at what we can control, which the officials performance today you couldn’t control. We are waiting to go and speak to them to get some clarity on what happened.

“I said at half-time I was getting frustrated but that can’t roll on to the pitch. We just needed to be as calculated, as efficient as we can be. We will have days when our in-possession stuff isn’t where we want it to be but we have to make sure the transition backs it up and it didn’t really do that today.”

Williamson could hand opportunities to a number of his squad players when the Heed make the short trip to Northern Premier League rivals Dunston UTS on Tuesday before turning their focus towards next Saturday’s FA Cup fourth qualifying round tie at Stourbridge.

The former Newcastle United centre-back urged his players to learn lessons from the defeat against the Robins as they look to make progress in two separate cup competitions over the coming days.

He said: “We have the Challenge Cup so it’s a good opportunity to put a strong team out and progress but regardless if there is a game or not, you just have to react to today and I think we had too many players that weren’t at the level we expect.

“We know that, we accept that, it’s a learning process but it has to improve us.”