Lawson D’Ath challenged his Yeovil Town team-mates to “roll their sleeves up” as they fell deeper in to the relegation mire with a 2-0 defeat against Maidenhead United on Tuesday night.
The midfielder, who was replaced by Malachi Linton in the 72nd minute in Berkshire, admitted the performance was “not good enough” against one of their National League relegation rivals.
The Glovers travel to fellow strugglers York City on Saturday with just two goals on goal difference keeping them out of the division’s relegation places after Gateshead picked up a valuable 2-1 win to boost their fight to stay up.
D’Ath told BBC Somerset’s Sheridan Robins: “We know that is not good enough, it is just the basics and you only have to look at the (first) goal. If we had come in at 0-0 we would have had a better chance, but it’s not good enough.”
Manager Mark Cooper pointed to the energy the players expended in Saturday’s 4-1 home defeat to leaders Notts County in his post-match interview, but D’Ath said they could not use that as an excuse for their performance.
He added: “We have Saturday-Tuesday weeks coming up, so it is not a good enough excuse. Yes, we are tried after a tough performance both physically and mentally against Notts County but we should have come and at least got a point here and moved on to the next game.
“I still think we had chances early on in the second half, it was just a lack of quality and then we got done on the counter attack.”
Asked if his position as one of the squad’s more senior players added extra responsibility, he said: “No matter how old you are, who you are, where you have come from, we have to roll our sleeves up for this club and fight for every point.”