'He's got to do better on all three!' Keeper Malkowski among Boston United players to feel manager Elliott's ire

It was a night to forget for the former Poland international as he was beaten at his near post by Shane Byrne’s corner before flapping at the loose ball which allowed Connor Hall to make it 2-0.

And with Boston chasing a leveller in stoppage time, Malkowski saw a long-range strike from Byrne slide under his frame.

“I thought it was Seb’s fault,” Elliott said when asked of the first goal.

“I’m going to be honest, I think the keeper’s not done well enough on all three goals.

“It’s unfortunate, I thought he had a good debut on Saturday.

“I think it’s a bad time to be playing Brackley for him. They test the best keepers in this league and their deliveries are fantastic and the team are so big.

“It was one of my concerns coming into this game. I look at all three goals and think he’s got to do better on all three.”

Elliott, however, refused to pin the blame solely on his keeper on a night when too many Pilgrims underperformed.

Midfielders Andi Thanoj and Brad Abbott also felt the manager’s ire following a first half when Boston were overun in the centre of the park.

“In all honesty, I thought the opening two midfielders were very poor on the ball,” the manager added.

“You can talk about extra midfield men, but you’re going to have that if you give the ball away in key areas.

“Andi Thanoj has two or there times where he gave the ball away in an area where it was an easy pass to his full back.

“If you do that you’re always going to be overrun.

“I’ll never disrespect Brackley, I think they’re a fanrtastic team. But I think we created a lot of our own problems just by sloppy play.”

Elliott slammed his side’s slow start, but also admitted that he could have made changes to the starting XI to combat the Saints’ approach.

He said: “It was frustrating in the sense of a horrendous opening really. We talked about having a good start as we’ve not had a good start in the last three or four games.

“As much as we’ve had good results, we’ve started slow. We’ve talked about how we couldn’t do that against these as they’re a cut above what we’ve been playing.

“I have regrets. I wanted to change it tonight but I’ve been promoting in training about winning and keeping your shirt.

“You have regrets sometimes as a manager. I could’ve maybe changed that a little bit and that’s on me.

“But, individually, players let us down, especially in the first half.”