Ian Varley: ‘We need eight new players or will get relegated’

Following their 7-0 mauling by promotion-chasers Burgess Hill he admitted the situation is desperate but believes they have time to pull themselves out of it if they can find the right personnel.

Varley said: “In my opinion on that showing the team will definitely get relegated. We need a lot of players: five, six, seven, eight players, honestly. It’s been like that for weeks.

“There’s no characters - it was men against boys.

“They don’t do what they’re told - we can do it once or twice but can’t do it consistently. They do their own thing. It’s getting desperate. We’ve got sufficient time to do something about it.

“We’ve given ourselves two weeks to bring some in.

“When you are in a losing streak its difficult because players go into their shells and we had a player sent-off.

“Jamie Ampleford and Ross Morley did OK and Troy Williams when he came on but that’s three out of 16 people. We played well for 3 or 4 minutes of the game. Confidence low before and is even worse now. We lost a big game on Tuesday (against Walton Casuals) and we didn’t expect anything from today. We didn’t take anything from the game. We got a hammering.

“It’s very alarming. Gary Charman said it’s the hardest time in football and he’s played for 20-odd years.

“We’ve got a big couple of weeks and we’ll get that done. Hopefully we’ll have some new faces and can start winning games by the Sittingbourne game or the one after that.

“It’s a challenge for us one that we will stick with.”

Varley praised the long suffering fans for keeping behind them despite suffering such a big defeat.

He said: “We’ve definately got the best fans in the league. I’ve seen their frustrations on the forum. 7-0 down and still chanting. We must have had 30/40 here today. It’s harsh on them if we keep on giving performances like that.”