Lancaster City boss didn’t hold back after seeing his side’s weekend defeat.

Jimmy Marshall described Lancaster City’s second-half performance as ‘a disgrace’ after they exited the FA Trophy on Saturday.

The Dolly Blues were beaten 5-1 in their third qualifying round tie at NPL Premier leaders Cleethorpes Town, a week after FA Cup defeat at Bradford (Park Avenue).

Having led through Nic Evangelinos’ early goal, City were pegged back by Josh Walker as half-time arrived with the teams level at 1-1.

However, a second-half collapse saw Walker complete his hat-trick before Henry Brown and Billy Fewster wrapped up the scoring.

Speaking afterwards, the Lancaster boss said: “It was dismal in the second half, I didn’t think it was too bad first half.

“I don’t know how you can go from putting that first-half performance in to that second-half performance.

“That second half was a disgrace. They’re flying high but you’ll not have an easier 45 minutes all season.

“Some of the stuff we did second half was out of this world in a bad way, it was ridiculous.

“Awful goals, awful decisions, lack of work rate, lack of endeavour, no running: some lads looked like they were begging for the game to finish after 70 minutes.

“We crumbled, absolutely crumbled. (I’ve) Gone round that hardy band of supporters at the end and they’re all positive.

“At the end of the day, that’s our football team out there but the way we’ve just downed tools in the second half is an absolute disgrace; can’t have it, won’t have it.

“When we can’t deliver for the supporters, that’s bad enough, but when they come all this way and watch that lack of anything second half, it’s a disgrace.

“It rips my soul out to see that performance in front of those travelling fans and it’s not good enough.

“I feel like a broken record at the minute but I don’t know how you can go from playing like that first half to doing that second half.

“Some of the stuff we were doing in terms of giving penalties away and not getting tight enough to men in the box, we just put ourselves under pressure through making bad decisions.

“Individually and collectively, it’s absolutely miles off it.”