CHRIS Wilson apologised to the club’s supporters after his first competitive game in charge of the Chickens ended in defeat.

The United boss, who was on holiday for the opening three fixtures of the Magna Dorset Premier League campaign, could only watch in horror as the hosts slumped to a 4-0 loss at the hands of Sturminster Marshall on Saturday.

And he was surely left longing for a return to the Spanish sun.

Reflecting on the Chickens’ second defeat of the season, Wilson said: “We got nothing from the game and deserved it.

“All I can do is apologise to the people who came to see us play. It was unacceptable and the players, being an honest bunch, knew it.

“We’ve got to put it behind us quickly and learn the mistakes we made, which were in abundance.

“We started off okay and looked like we might go on and control the game, but we stopped doing what we were doing.

“We failed to close down and our ball retention was terrible. When you have the ball you have to look after it and when you don’t have it you have to work hard to get it back – we did neither.”

He added: “The first goal was an own goal while Josh Burton held his hands up for the second, so we were 2-0 down at half-time.

“Things were said and to be fair, for the first 10 minutes of the second half, it looked like we might fight our way back into the game.

“But the third goal was the sucker punch. We allowed their striker to turn in the box and that’s unforgivable.

“Their last goal was not too dissimilar to the first one England conceded against Germany in the World Cup – a ball straight down the middle not being dealt with – and that was it, we were gone.

“Their keeper made a couple of decent saves but we didn’t deserve anything out of the game.

“From one to 11 we didn’t function as a team and you can’t legislate for that. Hopefully next time we’ll put on a better show for our supporters.”

Chickerell will be tasked with producing a better performance when they host Cranborne on Saturday.

Chickens: Bickerstaff, Weeks, Williams, Burton, Oldrid, A Skelton, B Skelton (Robinson 75), Roper, Kenderdine, Chance (Carlile 75), Oliver (Walbridge 65).