Colin Spence accused some of his Irvine Meadow players of hiding as they took a second half tanking from Auchinleck Talbot.
Meadow's run of three straight league wins came to an abrupt halt yesterday as the went down 5-1 at home, with Talbot coming from behind and netting four times after the interval.
And co-boss Spence pulled no punches in his assessment of his side's performance as he insisted they were lucky not to lose by even more.
He said: "It was very frustrating in the second half because I felt a lot of our players went into a shell.
"A few of them started hiding and I've not seen that from them very often this season.
"I thought we were lucky it was only 5-1. It could've been more, let's be honest.
"We made it far too easy for Talbot. We showed them far too much respect.
"If you get beat 5-1, if anything, you want to show a wee bit of character and get stuck in at least.
"You need to be more physical when a team start knocking the ball about. We didn't do that and that's not acceptable.
"We won't stand for that here and that's the message the players have been sent home with."
Meadow's match preparartions were thrown into chaos at the 11th hour when key men Jamie Martin and Neil Slooves were ruled out through injury and work commitments respectively.
But they got off to a dream start when Mick Wardrope's brilliant diving header gave them a third minute lead.
They controlled much of the first half but Bryan Boylan hauled Talbot level a minute before half-time, bending a superb first time shot into the bottom corner from 16 yards.
A nightmare start to the second half saw Mark Shankland and Boylan net inside the first five minutes and Meadow's afternoon unravelled from there as goals from Aiden Wilson and Graham Wilson piled on the misery.
Spence admitted he was thrilled with his side's first half showing but insisted there was no excuse for what followed.
He added: "I was delighted with the first half hour. I thought we were excellent.
"We really played on the front foot and everything we worked on we were doing.
"We kept putting them under pressure and asking a lot of questions.
"I suppose against Talbot you have to go and get the second goal.
"We knew we were up against it today. We were missing some big players.
"That's not an excuse though. We don't use excuses. We were still strong enough out there."
Spence admits he'll be looking for a big reaction from his players next weekend when they head to Cumbernauld to take on Rob Roy in another WoSFL Premier Division clash.
He added: "Any time we've had a bad result they've always bounce back, so they've got a big job on their hands this week against Rob Roy.
"As long as they learn, take it on the chin and bounce back we'll forgive them."
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