Chesham United manager Andy Leese believes some of his players are distracted by their upcoming FA Cup clash against Bradford.

Leese’s concerns came off the back of a 2-0 defeat against Paulton Rovers in the Evo-Stik Southern Premier Division on Saturday.

With Paulton sitting second from bottom in the division the Generals boss felt the game was a good opportunity to extend their recent winning run to seven games.

“I don’t think the players or people at the club realise that these league games are more important than anything we ever do in the cup,” a frustrated Leese explained.

“I am incredibly disappointed with a number of aspects in the game. We were on a great run and we couldn’t continue it.

“No disrespect to Paulton, they have a new manager and new players, but we had the chances to be winning the game comfortably.”

Leese’s annoyance was intensified by the sending off of Kelvin Bossman in the second half for a straight red card.

He had made changes for the specific purpose of protecting members of his squad who were in danger of suspension from accumulating yellow cards.

Bossman’s red was therefore untimely and Leese was also upset by the referee’s performance.

“I felt I had to leave one or two players out because they would have missed the FA Cup game if they had picked up another yellow card,” he said.

“We had our hands tied by that but we should have had enough to win. We conceded two poor goals and I am very disappointed.

“The red card is extremely irritating. The referee didn’t help proceedings and I thought he was too bossy and dealt with certain players or situations too quickly.”

In a game that Chesham would have expected to win they were wasteful in front of goal and Leese highlighted the fact that they even contrived to miss open goals at times.

Speaking on Tuesday Leese said he would be looking for an immediate reaction to the defeat in the game against Kettering Town later that day.

However, he did not get it as United went down 3-0 to a Town side that never looked like losing the match.

The result confirmed a disappointing return of zero points from two games Leese had targeted as must not lose heading into another run of cup games.

Chesham will not return to league action until Tuesday, 8 December and could be cut adrift of the teams above them in the table should results conspire against them.

While the defeat on Tuesday night was disappointing Leese had in many ways signposted it with his pre match comments on Kettering.

He said: “It will be the toughest night of our season without a doubt. They have signed four or five players who are very experienced and I need my players to realise that or they will struggle.”

With Leese’s comments proving prophetic he will now look to lift his side for their game against Frome Town in the FA Trophy on Saturday.