STEVE Wilkes was scathing in his assessment of his Northwich Victoria side’s display at Charnock Richard last night, calling it “a disgrace.”

Having gone 1-0 early thanks to Brad Lynch’s goal, Vics collapsed to a 5-2 defeat after conceding three times in the space of seven second-half minutes.

Vics would have climbed to fourth in the North West Counties League Premier Division table with victory but instead were humbled by their hosts.

Speaking to NVFCTV post-match, Wilkes said his players “threw the towel in” and that looking at players who were missing was no excuse.

Watch the full post-match interview here

“First and foremost, I want to apologise to our fans who came and watched that,” he said.

“I said to the players in there that they were a disgrace.

“Take Kieron Kenny out of the argument, take Brandon Barski out and take Matty Birchall out and maybe one or two others, but the rest were nowhere near good enough.

“People may say we’ve got Rudy (Misambo) missing, we’ve got Tom Schofield missing, we’ve got Grimmy (Carl Grimshaw) missing, Flemo (Jack Fleming) missing but it’s still not good enough.

“We’ve been beaten 5-2 and it could have been more. When people throw the towel in like they did, I won’t stand for that.”

Lynch’s 11th-minute opener was cancelled out just four minutes later by Jack Gooden, with Nathan Nickeas giving Charnock the lead just before the interval.

Jordan Darr then struck twice in quick succession before Gooden’s second put the game to bed, rendering Barski’s late consolation immaterial.

Wilkes highlighted things he saw in the warm-up as a bad sign and says some of the players on show have played their last games for the club.

“We started the game really well, we went 1-0 up but all of a sudden we stopped passing the ball,” he said.

“We know what Charnock Richard’s strengths are – we said don’t leave a lot of space in behind but for the fourth goal, Jordan Darr has run 35 yards to score.

“The third goal – three of their lads have had chances to score on the rebound. Where are mine?

“We’ve had a poor night, myself included. I’m the manager and I take full responsibility for that performance.

“Things happened in the warm-up that I won’t tolerate and there will be players moved on after that.”

Perhaps the worst thing is that Vics now have a fortnight to stew over the result – they are not currently scheduled to play again until a Cheshire Senior Cup meeting with Tranmere Rovers on October 27.

Wilkes accepts he will come in for criticism from supporters following the performance but he assured fans such a display would not be repeated.

“This is Northwich Victoria Football Club. With all due respect, this is not a Sunday league outfit,” he said.

“When we come out and play like we did, I will not stand for that.

“Once again, I will apologise to all those who travelled and paid their good money to watch us and I promise you that will not happen again.

“We’ll get one or two players back from injury and holiday, but that’s just going to gloss over what happened.

“I’m sure some of the fans will have a pop at me and that’s fine.

“It’s the nature of the beast – I pick the team, make the subs and all of that – but when people don’t try, I can’t abide that.”