Coming off the high of Wednesday night, Birmingham Legion dropped a stinker against one of the worst teams in the league.

Despite a bright opening half, the Three Sparks barely troubled Oakland’s Kendall McIntosh in goal. The team faltered after the 35-minute mark, leading to a dismal second period and 1-0 loss to the worst defense in the USL Championship.

“The second half was embarrassing,” Mark Briggs said. “Shocking. Nothing to do with tactics. … We showed it on Wednesday night and we think we can just turn up and play a game. I’m frustrated”

After enduring poor starts to the majority of their games this season, recent encounters have seen the reverse. As in their last two outings, against Louisville City and Sacramento Republic, the Three Sparks were the better team for the opening half-hour.

Kobe Hernandez-Foster had the first big chance of the game with a shot from distance in the 21st minute. After cutting onto his left foot, the midfielder sent the attempt just wide of the far post.

Danny Trejo got the next big chance, which he started himself with a driving run at the Oakland defense. The Mexican forward sent Moses Mensah down the left flank, though the defender’s cross was cleared. It came only so far as Trejo, but the McIntosh got down quickly to save at his near post.

Trejo continued to be a livewire down the left wing and won a free-kick just after the half-hour mark. He took it himself, with Mensah jumping over it at the near post to surprise the defense. Though a clever attempt, an Oakland player parried it out for a corner.

Down the opposite flank, Turnbull made a great overlapping run in the 37th minute. Hernandez-Foster’s pass made it through to him after a dummy by Enzo Martínez, and good link up play soon had the right wing back running into the box. His low cross was mis-controlled by Martínez on the six-yard line, but the assistant’s flag was up for offside against the Uruguayan anyway.

Birmingham did not threaten again for over an hour.

“I saw us actually turn up for those 35 minutes,” Briggs said. “But the game’s f***ing 95 minutes. You can’t play for 35 minutes.

“We create opportunities, we get in behind, but the second half we didn’t do anything,” he added. “Not a thing. Subs come in, didn’t do anything. Players that played, just embarrassing. Shocking in every single department.”

The visitors had the ball in the net for the first time in the 39th minute, but the offside flag went up to keep things level.

After a miscommunication between Jake Rufe and Stephen Turnbull, both stepped up to a ball but let it through, sending Jurgen Damm into acres of space down the left wing. His low cross found Peter Wilson at the back post, but the forward had gone too early.

Like against Sacramento, Legion went into the break level despite their early dominance. It quickly became worse with a 53rd minute penalty to the visitors.

Edwin Laszo, who picked up a yellow card just 10 seconds into the game, barged into an Oakland player from behind for a clear penalty.

Kai Greene stepped up and calmly sent Matt van Oekel the wrong way. Mensah and Martínez protested that the penalty should be retaken for player encroachment from Oakland, but replays showed AJ Paterson was responsible for pushing the player there in the first place.

Briggs wasted little time in attempting to adress the situation, making a double substitution on the hour mark. Laszo and Trejo came off, with Tyler Pasher and Preston Tabort Etaka replacing them.

It made no difference, and Oakland put the ball in the net for the third time just moments later. But for the second time of the night, the assistant’s flag saved the Legion.

“We have to have an understanding that you have to consistently do the things that make you successful, day in, day out,” Briggs said. “And right now, we do them half the time and then we don’t do them the other half. Or we do them 30% of the time and then we don’t do them the other 70% of the time.

“And that’s why you see one performance like [Wednesday] and you get a good result, and then the next performance is absolutely shocking,” he added. “We don’t do the things we’re supposed to do consistently every single day.”

The visitors came close again in the 74th minute, crashing a header off the bar from a corner.

Briggs responded with his two more changes, including a club-debut for new-signing Sebastian Saucedo.

It made little difference, as the Legion did not force a second save from the Oakland goalkeeper until the 89th minute. Tyler Pasher had the shot, seeing his effort from distance parried out for a corner that resulted in nothing.

One final corner in the fifth minute of stoppage saw van Oekel come up, but not even the goalkeeper’s presence could lead to a shot on target for the home team.

The game ended 1-0 to the visitors, the third such result at Protective Stadium in Briggs’ tenure. In five home games since the Englishman took over, the team has only scored two goals.

“It’s not good enough,” Briggs said. “We need to get into the attacking zone more. We need to make runs and get into the box, which we haven’t been doing. I think there’s a number of things that you can look at.

“I think when you don’t keep possession of the ball, you don’t give yourself an opportunity to create opportunities,” he added. “For those 35 minutes, we actually maintained the ball and moved the opponent left to right. For the rest of the night we kept the ball for two, three, four passes and gave it away.

“You’re a professional footballer. Those standards have to be higher. Individual standards that we want as a team, as a club, they have to be higher. They have to be better. These things aren’t acceptable.”

Birmingham Legion will need to pick themselves up quickly with a crucial game on the horizon. The Three Sparks head to Indianapolis for a top-of-Group-3 clash with Indy Eleven in the USL Jägermeister Cup. The winner will likely win the group and advance to the knockout stage, while the loser will have to hope for a wildcard slot.

“As a staff, we just have to be consistent with our message, be consistent with our training sessions, be consistent with our standards,” Briggs said. “Like, tonight, you can’t coach somebody not being able to pass a ball five yards.

“So we just have to continue that message and continue to do the things that we’ve spoke about and continue to try and put guys in spots to be successful,” he added. “But you can’t go on the field and do it for them.”

Legion’s game against Indy Eleven kicks off at 6 p.m. June 28, live on ESPN+.

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