EBBW Vale head coach Matthew McCarthy felt a lack of confidence played a huge role in his side slipping to a seventh defeat from eight games this season, writes Chris Kirwan.

An absence of belief meant that the Steelmen were tentative when chances came and that a narrow Keys lead turned into a one-side rout, on the scoreboard at least.

“I certainly don’t think 36-12 was a fair reflection of what happened out there,” said McCarthy. “Heads went down when a few decisions went Keys’ way and the tries came.

“It was a game that we had chances to win or come away with something, and it is heartbreaking to have nothing for our efforts.

“At half-time we were pretty confident that we could come away with the win. The moment that turned the game was the harsh sin bin.

“Obviously we have had the top sides at the start of the season but the boys have to understand that it is not good enough to come away with nothing from a game that we would expect to get something from, regardless of injury problems.

“I am pretty harsh on the players, but myself and Christian (Loader, forwards coach) are very harsh on ourselves on what we do.

“We have tried to change things in training, we have asked Dragons coaches to come along to see if what we are doing is right and we have had good positive feedback, but we are going to really have to look at the squad.

“We need players in but we have a tight budget. And we have good players, we have just got to put it right. At the end of the day you can’t get away from 36-12.”

Cross Keys forwards coach Greg Woods said there had been no need for the hair-dryer treatment despite the Pandy Park side failing to produce their best.

“We knew it would be hard to come up here and crack them but we took our chances,” he said. “We didn’t hit top gear but we are delighted with the win.

“Ebbw Vale are down on their luck with injuries so we knew that if we got into the lead their confidence would go and we could get away from them.

“We wanted them to chase the game and for more mistakes to happen, we had talked about that in the week.

“It would have been nice to get the bonus point but the third try came too late and in the end we are more than happy to take the four points.”