Witney Town 2 Calne Town 1 (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Witney Town 2 Calne Town 1

7:57am Tuesday 25th September 2007 in Football By Gordon Simpson

FA Vase>/b>

Calne Town boss Robbie Lardner has slated his players for an "embarrassing" first half performance in Saturday's FA Vase match at Witney.

The Lilywhites found themselves 2-0 down to their Hellenic Premier League opponents at the break.

Lardner described it as possibly the worst 45 minutes he has ever seen at the club.

"I am bitterly disappointed," he said. "It is probably one of the poorest 45-minute displays we have produced since I have been involved with the club.

"We never won any headers or tackles and we looked lost.

"I wasn't impressed with Witney and I thought if we had turned up in the first half we would have won it comfortably.

"We were so far off the pace it was frightening and it's very difficult to explain.

"They are a pretty honest bunch of players, but I have never seen a team of players all perform so badly.

"I said to them at half-time, if I had 11 subs I would have taken the lot of them off.

"The FA Vase is a great opportunity for the players and I was bitterly disappointed to go out in those circumstances.

"If it takes me ripping the wallpaper off the dressing room before the next game to avoid it again then that's what I'll do.

"In fairness, we came out after the break and put in a performance that showed a little bit of pride.

"I couldn't fault the attitude in the second half, but the damage was done."

Calne were without Steve Casey, Matt Ralph and Matt Pratley for the second qualifying round match.

The game started disastrously for them, as Gary Wickens produced an excellent finish to give the hosts the lead after two minutes.

Wickens then doubled the lead after 25 minutes, as the home side threatened to run riot.

Lardner made some changes to his team at the break and Calne began to exert some dominance on the game after the interval.

They gave themselves a lifeline in the 73rd minute, when Glenn Armstrong's cross grazed the crossbar and fell to Gary Banks at the back post.

Banks calmly slotted home to set up a grandstand finish.

Calne were then denied what Lardner described as a "blatant" penalty, when the ball appeared to strike the arm of a Witney defender on the line.

But Lardner admitted his side did not deserve a result and said they had to now focus on putting things right at home to Street in the league on Saturday.

"They have started reasonably well, but they are not one of the league's big fish," he said.

"If we play like we did in the first half then we will be easy meat for them, but I don't believe we will do that again.

"We will make sure we are focused and I am expecting a performance from us and three points."