Eastwood bosses 'let down' after heavy Sherwood defeat

The 5-1 loss kept the hosts top of the table and saw Eastwood drop to third in the UCL Premier North standings after what was their third defeat of the campaign so far.

Ben Henderson registered Eastwood’s only goal but having been 3-0 down at the break, it proved too much of a mountain to climb.

Ball told the club’s YouTube channel: “We were out-battled, out-worked, didn’t defend set pieces well enough and didn’t look like we wanted to put our bodies on the line.

"We just didn’t want to do the horrible, nasty side of football and ultimately in this league, if you don’t want to do that, you’re going to get beat.

"It’s not through the whole side – I’m not going to highlight who I think it is but they know who they are – and that’s the top and bottom of it and we’ve been let down today as managers.”

Thomas was quick to add that the result doesn’t define the season, but that it should act as a wake up call to the Eastwood players.

He said: “It’s only September. I’ve been saying for the last five or six weeks that I’m not going to get carried away and today it hurts but I’m past the point of being angry to be honest. The performance was embarrassing by certain players and we need to strengthen.

"We’ve played two of the title favourites in Sherwood and Melton and we’ve lost both so we’re nowhere near where we need to be.

"It’s great winning games but we’ve got a lot of work on the training ground and need to get some new faces in.”

Eastwood are back in FA Vase action this weekend when they go to Southwell City and Thomas is keen to see a positive response.

He said: “We’ve not turned into a bad team overnight and it’s one we’ll just have to take on the chin, get into training and be ready for a massive game next week against Southwell where we need to put right quite a lot of wrongs from today.

Following the Southwell game, Eastwood will have a week’s break before welcoming Lincoln United to Nottinghamshire on Saturday, ​​​​​​September 30.