Hinckley AFC assistant manager Paul Tomlinson said his side’s performance against Chelmsley Town was the worst in the club’s three years of existence.
Sam Agar’s opener on 20 minutes gave AFC the advantage but the visitors overturned it thanks to goals either side of half time from Chris Gumery and Kaine Williams.
That meant AFC suffered their third defeat in four games with a loss to a Chelmsley side battling relegation and Tomlinson said the visitors were well worth their win.
“That was probably the worst performance in three years.
“But congratulations to Chelmsley. They’ve done their club and their manager proud today, they battled hard and didn’t give us a minute’s peace over the 90.
“As bad as we were, I’d like to pay some congratulations to Chelmsley because I thought they were tremendous today in the way they worked for their manager and their club.
“They deserved that result.”
Tomlinson said his side were lacking ideas and that the players are as shocked as the fans by the display.
“We were lacking ideas. We’ve got one or two people carrying injuries at the back so we were trying to protect one or two a little bit but that’s no excuse for the way we played today.
“In the three years we’ve been here that is by far, as a collective, the worst performance in that time. We’re all lost for words really with the quality of player that we’ve got.
“You can only put it down to that we’ve had a lot of possession in the first 30 minutes and played quite well at times without really hurting them.
“I just think we’ve got caught up in the moment of thinking it would be a relatively easy game but as I said, I want to pay tribute to the opposition because they were tremendous.
“It’s like one or two of the lads have gone on the beach. They’re as mortified as me and Carl are, don’t get me wrong.
“They are feeling it because they’ve taken it hard and taken it personally but at the end of the day the only people who can affect a performance are the players once they cross the white line.
“Players have tried, they’ve worked hard but it’s just been one of those days where they’ve had three chances, scored two and Haydn’s made a good save on the other one.
“They could have had another goal to be fair but I think we huffed and puffed but it just felt like the lads think the season’s over.”
The season, though, is far from over and Tomlinson says he expects a big reaction as his side battle to hold on to second spot in the league.
“We had a good run in the Vase, that’s gone, we got to the semi-finals of the League Cup, that’s gone, and so you might think there’s not a lot to play for.
“There is an awful lot to play for. We’re playing for second, that’s the next best thing to winning the league, it’s an improvement on last year and the year before.
“We need to try and get second spot, regroup and then go again next year.”
