IAN Hutchinson pointed the finger of blame squarely at his players after yesterday’s 4-1 defeat against Bashley in the Zamaretto Premier Division, claiming they had let everybody down.

A hugely respectable crowd of 673 turned out in force at the Bob Lucas Stadium to witness what they hoped would be another promising display by the Terras, following last Saturday’s 3-1 victory at Evesham United, but instead they got completely the other extreme.

Bashley entered the local derby without a win in their opening five games but they found Weymouth’s defence in charitable mood as efforts by Joe Maxwell and Ian Oliver, and two own goals from Shane White and Ben Gerring underlined huge frailties in a normally solid back four.

Pierre Joseph-Dubois did level the game at 1-1 early in the first half with a sublime strike on the turn but that was all the home fans had to cheer as the Terras came crashing back down to earth with a huge bump.

And for Hutchinson, the performance was completely inept. He said: “We gave them a goal start through some sloppy defending before we then equalised through a good goal from Pierre.

“We then looked bright for 10 or 15 minutes before gifting them two more goals before the break and to be honest it was totally unacceptable.

“One big positive this season has been the way we have defended but today it was totally the reverse of that.

“And it is the first time in my two spells as manager here that Ihave to say that I feel a little let down.

“The players have also let themselves down and another good crowd down.

“We were just not at the races, in fact we were miles off, and we need to bounce back immediately with a big improvement at Leamington on Saturday, which will be another tough game.”

White had a home debut to forget but he was not the only one who failed to perform to an acceptable level.

Hutchinson added: “I cannot pick anyone out because it was just a poor team performance. Bashley are not the strongest side we will face this season but they did the nitty gritty things well and sometimes that is how you win football matches.

“They closed down, put the ball in good areas and took their chances whereas we were sloppy all over the pitch.”

The Terras would have closed to within one point of Bashley with victory yesterday but now they sit seven points adrift of second-bottom Oxford City, and more alarmingly, nine away from safety.