Shell shocked Welling United manager Jamie Coyle pulled no punches when speaking about Welling’s terrible display at Chelmsford City.

Illness forced him to withdraw from the starting line-up after originally naming himself in the eleven to play as he explained. “I didn’t feel great. I felt faint so, unfortunately I had to take myself out of the team.”

Despite having a centre half, Sean Francis, on the bench Coyle chose to shuffle the pack, bringing in Harry Phipps and moving Connor Dymond back as one of the three centre halves, stating as a reason “Their two boys up top are really quick and Connor offers a little bit more pace as one of the wide three defenders with Parky (Jack Parkinson) playing as a sweeper. He’s been successful at this level so that was the reason.”

Having been unbeaten away since the opening game of the season playing with four at the back, it could have been an option to switch to that formation. Ian Gayle and Parkinson could have been the centre backs but Coyle didn’t cite that as having a bearing on the performance. He said “I don’t think the formation and tactics has got anything to do with today.

“There’s too many players that have underperformed and I’d like to take this opportunity to apologise to the fans who have travelled today because I’ve had to watch the same as them and it’s unacceptable, it really is. We’ll have to sit down as we can’t tolerate that level of performance.

“We’ve got players who we’ve carried and not done the basics like sticking with their man. The first goal was ridiculous. He has a touch out from under his feet, he looks up from 20, 25 yards and we haven’t got a player anywhere near him. We can break down each of the goals today and they’re embarrassing. I was embarrassed.”

He continued “At two nil, get in at half time, make changes and potentially get back in the game but the third one, I think he’s skipped past about three players. You can’t legislate for individual performances but individually and collectively today we were nowhere near it.”

Joe Healy missed out through suspension, Welling’s tenth of the season and the most unusual of all of them. Coyle said “He got sent off at Braintree and he was trying to watch the game from the tunnel towards the end of the game and a steward, there were a few words exchanged, was trying to stop him from watching the game. He’s put a complaint in, the steward, and he’s been suspended for two games with a fine which is disappointing, but we’ll have to deal with it.”

They have two games ahead of them with league leaders Dartford now and he knows the importance of them. “It’s massive. We’ve got to make sure that we’re going to pick eleven players that are going to go out there and wear their heart on their sleeve and we didn’t do that today. It’s going to be a real battle.

“I’ve seen them four or five times this year and if we are like what we were today, it could have been six or seven today, I thought we were lucky with the scoreline, we’re going to be in for a real tough game.”

Bouncing back is vital and Coyle wants to pay back the supporters. He said “We have to put a performance on for the fans that have travelled today, paid they’re hard earned cash again and seen what was served up again. It’s just unacceptable.

“We’ll be making sure that the eleven players who are out there are fully aware of the importance of the game, not only that it’s Dartford, but that we need a response after today. We’ve got to have a chat as a management team because I think that we need a few changes after today.”

Elliott Romain made his debut and although he didn’t make a great impact, Coyle is confident that he will be a good addition to the squad. “He offers something slightly different. He works really hard and plays off the shoulder. I’ve played against him a number of times and he’s a real handful so he’s something different to what we’ve got.

“He worked really hard today and you can see that he’s rusty and needs games. Hopefully, with another two or three games under his belt he will start firing.”