March Town United manager Paul Blanchflower says his players let themselves down after his side suffered a humiliating 7-0 loss against Stowmarket Town at the GER on Saturday.
The Hares went in to the game full of optimism after improved performances against AFC Sudbury Reserves and Dereham Town Reserves.
But they capitulated against a side from the bottom half of the Thurlow Nunn First Division, who they had taken a point off in November.
The result leaves March languishing in 16th in the league with 16 points from 27 games.
Blanchflower said: “The players let themselves down. They worked so hard in the previous two games but against Stowmarket they were just not at the races.
“Stowmarket are a strong, physical and fit side and we just didn’t cope with that.”
March made the worst possible start, falling behind after just four minutes.
They were already three goals down when youngster Lewis Welcher, in only his second start for the club, was sent off before half time.
The second half was a similarly sorry affair, with Stowmarket capitalising on their man advantage to plunder four more goals.
Blanchflower said: “The sending off didn’t help but we were already three nil down at that stage.”
The Hares will look to bounce back when they travel to Ipswich Wanderers, who are eight places above them in the league, on Saturday.
The sides have yet to meet this season but will play each other twice in two weeks.
One player who is likely to feature is key midfielder Luke Pepper, who bagged a brace in the reserves’ 4-2 win at Milton on Saturday.
Blanchflower said: “We are planning to bring Luke back in to the squad. He’s a good ball player who is composed in possession, which is something we lacked on Saturday.
“We played the ball too quickly in the wrong areas and it came back at us straight away.
“Luke can hold the ball up and beat a man. Hopefully he will be a calming influence.”
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