'They buy into what I want to do or join another club' - raging Horndean boss Michael Birmingham's alarming assessment following Shaftesbury humbling

The Deans boss was seething after watching his side suffer a 5-2 thumping at Shaftesbury yesterday.

It was the second successive Wessex Premier fixture in which Horndean have conceded five goals - following a 5-1 home defeat at the hands of Fareham Town last time out - as they were knocked off top spot by Brockenhurst.

Seething boss Birmingham believes his second-placed side’s flying start to the season, which had seen them lose just two of their opening 19 league matches, was just placing 'wallpaper over the cracks' within the club - and he says that has now become evidence in their previous two losses.

And he demanded his under-performing squad start acting more 'professionally' or the Deans boss could even walk away from the club himself.

Birmingham raged: ‘I’ve watched these videos back (of matches) and we’re in a world of pain, that’s what we are, we’re in a world of pain at the moment.

‘I’ve got players who actually think they’re better than what they are. They must be going home and whoever it is, they must be patting them on the back and saying, ‘don’t you worry about that, you were good today,’ what is that about?

‘I gave them the ultimatum yesterday, if they want to play Sunday football and get injured, if you want to go out on Friday night and not want to play Saturday, if you want to turn up and think you’re having a Jolly Boy Outing - go and find another club because I’m not all about that.

‘It’s either they go or I go - that’s the ultimatum. They buy into what I want to do and be a little bit more professional, stop playing Sundays, if people want to go out on a Friday night and turn up absolutely steaming and put in a woeful performance, go and join another club.

‘If you don’t want to turn up and put in the hard work and effort which the club is giving you then go, leave, there are plenty of other clubs around the PO postcode they can go and join.

‘We have not played a top side with their top availability and the wallpaper is only covering cracks. No matter how many times you put the wallpaper over these cracks, they’re always going to come through.’

A disastrous day for Horndean had actually started on a bright note with Harry Jackson firing them in front after 13 minutes at Shaftesbury.

But things went from bad to worse after Asa Phillips levelled on 23 minutes. Ash Pope's lobbed effort put the hosts ahead for the first time eight minutes later then Luke Delaney added a third with half-time approaching.

Delaney then added a fourth for Shaftesbury five minutes after the restart prior to Greg Peel making it 5-1 eight minutes from time.

Substitute Luke Kimber did pull one back for Horndean soon after but they succumbed to a heavy 5-2 loss - conceding five for the second straight league outing.