JAMES Fry slammed his side’s second-half performance after Alvechurch surrendered a first-half lead in a heavy 4-1 home defeat against St Ives Town.
Church led through Nick Clayton-Phillips’ goal only for St Ives to equalise before half time and score three second-half goals without reply at Lye Meadow.
Alvechurch boss Fry felt his side’s second-half display was the worst of his tenure and insists the club still need to pick up points in their fight to avoid relegation.
Fry said: “I have to apologise to the fans who turned up for the second half, it was nowhere near good enough and probably the worst 45 minutes since I’ve been here by a long stretch.
“Once the second goal went in, we never looked like getting back in the game and that isn’t a performance I ever want to see again.
“I haven’t held back, the players need to hear it, they need to know that it’s not going to be accepted, we’ve still got work to do this season and they should be very aware of that.
“We’ve got to move this football club forward, we’ve moved it forwards and this was a step backwards, we’re not out of the water, we still need some more points, the players have got to find a way to win.
“We have to bounce back, we want to repay the fans, we have to show the same fight we showed before Christmas and the start of the year, the lads have got to regroup and push this team forwards.”
The home side broke the deadlock on 28 minutes when Clayton-Phillips cut in from the right before firing a low effort in off the post from 20-yards out.
However, St Ives equalised four minutes before the break as Michael Richens’ free-kick from the left bounced in the box and went all the way in.
And the visitors completed the turnaround on 62 minutes when Jonathan Edwards picked out the bottom right corner from 12-yards out.
St Ives all but sealed the points on 73 minutes as Richens curled a low free-kick around the wall and past Ronnie Hollingshead from the edge of the penalty area.
And the away side completed the scoring four minutes from time when Jordan Williams finished from close range.
Alvechurch are next in action at home to Stourbridge on Saturday, March 16 with kick-off at 3pm at Lye Meadow.
