Darren Way branded his Bath City side’s performance in their humbling at Chelmsford City on Saturday 7th March as a disgrace.
Bath City boss Darren Way did not mince his words after his relegation-threatened side were dismantled 7-1 by Chelmsford City in Enterprise National League South on Saturday 7th March | Photo © Simon Howe
The Romans were hammered 7-1 by the promotion-chasing Essex side.
But with Chippenham Town recording a statement victory over Enfield Town the same afternoon, Bath are being drawn even deeper into the relegation mire.
Way’s team remain in 21st place – the final demotion spot – in Enterprise National League South.
But Chippenham climbed off the bottom of the table with their 1-0 win over the North Londoners and are now level on points with the Romans, who are only one point ahead of new basement outfit Eastbourne Borough.
Bath do have matches in hand on all of the teams around them. The first of those games in hand is a massive encounter with Farnborough – who are one place above the Romans, and in the final ‘safe’ position – at the Cannon Clarke Stadium @ Twerton Park tomorrow, Tuesday 10th March (7.45pm).
Reflecting on the mauling at Chelmsford, Bath manager Way said: “It was a disgrace, it wasn’t good enough.
“If you look at the goals in the first half [Chelmsford led 4-0 at the break]… I felt we went out with a clear message of making sure that you’re brilliant at the basics, we wrote it down on the board, making sure you defend one v one well, you win your first and second contacts, you make sure when we do win the ball back you find the first pass on regain, and I’ve been seeing too many times individuals making errors that are costing us games.
“I just want them to appreciate we’re all working hard at this football club.
“There’s an incredible amount of people, there’s volunteers, and we’re just asking them [the players] to do their jobs for what they get paid for and look like they’re doing it with a little bit of commitment, passion, desire, looking like they enjoy doing it.
“Without being disrespectful to the strikers, you’re 4-0 down and we can say ‘We need to score goals’, no we need to make sure…
“Last year when I came in, these same players that I’m running with kept 14 clean sheets and they aren’t showing the attitude or desire or commitment to be able to put that into practice this season.
“If you look at the first goal, that doesn’t help. But teams are attacking one side of our pitch and there’s too many goals coming from that area.
“So when you look at the group of players, no-one can moan about being given opportunities or chances, no-one can actually point a finger at the younger players, these are experienced players that have played over 100 games and we need to make sure we’re doing more than we’ve done today.
“I spoke to [the supporters] before the game and I apologised to them after the game, I’m trying to make sure someone who’s leading the football club, where there’s a lot of emotions, and there’s a lot of tension and everyone’s like ‘Are we going to stay up? Are we not?’…
“You expected the players to show a little bit of fight, a little bit of passion, a little bit of desire and look like they’re enjoying doing it. But I just think two or three changed face today and that really annoyed me.”
Looking ahead to the crucial tussle with Farnborough, Way said: “I don’t want to give the players an excuse that I’ve emotionally lost the dressing room because it’s easy for players to point a finger and blame the manager, but I don’t think that’s the situation.
“They have to make sure that they reflect on their performance and as a group, which is something that normally in previous times we’ve had a response, they’ve got to do that for Tuesday which is a cup final to us, let’s be honest, if this group’s going to fight like it did last year.
“I’ve got to pick a team for Tuesday that looks like it’s fighting for all of us, because this isn’t just about the Darren Way Show, this is about Bath City and they’ve got a short memory some of them – we were in this position last year and they rolled their sleeves up.
“They’ve got a choice to make – they either act like cowards and hide away from the fact of where we are or turn up on Tuesday and make sure they fight for every tackle, every header and look like they care for this football club.”
Discounted tickets for tomorrow’s clash with Fanborough are available here.
