ALAN Devonshire has slammed his players' performance and apologised to the Braintree Town fans following their 6-0 FA Cup defeat to Chesterfield on Sunday.
In a difficult afternoon for the Iron, the League One side ripped them to shreds through goals by Jay O'Shea, Sam Clucas, Gary Roberts, Remy Clerima's own goal and an Eoin Doyle brace.
And Devonshire was less than happy with what he saw from his Braintree team.
He said: "We did alright for five minutes and then after that I thought we were poor. I am bitterly disappointed. I feel the players have let the side down, the players are better than that. Trying to put my finger on it, I don't know.
"We just didn't follow our runners and we didn't keep the ball. It was just a poor performance and I am not quite sure what more they want. They are in the first round of the FA Cup, the television is here and we wanted them to have a go and show everyone how good they are. But I have got to apologise to the fans because they were brilliant today and we let them down."
The Iron also drew another blank in front of goal, meaning that they have scored just seven goals in 12 games, with five of them coming against Weymouth in the previous round.
Devonshire added: "We have had enough chances to score and they should have been in the back of the net, like it was up the other end. Their finishing was good but we gifted them some goals. We have to learn quickly and work hard.
"I think you can easily blame confidence and I don't want to do that. The players were upbeat but we are struggling to score goals at the moment. We are making chances."
Braintree will be looking to bounce back quickly when they return to Conference Premier action, travelling to Dover on Tuesday night.
The Whites are currently three points behind the Iron, but enjoyed an FA Cup upset on Saturday, defeating League Two's Morecambe 1-0.
Devonshire said: "We have to roll our sleeves up to make sure that we get the 30 points more we need to make sure we stay in the Conference Premier.
"There are a few people coming back, but I could probably drop them all after today. There will be a few changes for Tuesday because it was very poor.
"We have to come back. Luckily we have a game on Tuesday and we can't feel sorry for ourselves."
