No desire, no care - a disgrace: Boss Birmingham condemns Rocks players after humbling by Chichester
Michael Birmingham said the Rocks’ New Year’s Day display in their derby defeat to Chichester was a disgrace – and the managers would simply not stand for it.
In a blunt and hard-hitting interview, Birmingham and fellow manager Jamie Howell have promised to do whatever it takes to get the team looking up again – and back to where it belongs.
Birmingham was particularly critical of the players’ efforts in the 4-1 home loss to Chichester City, which was just the latest in a long line of woeful perfornaces this season that have left them ten points adrift of safety at the bottom of the Isthmian premier division.
The management duo say the problems cannot be fixed overnight but they want to work with those players they feel do have a future at the club and rebuild the team and squad so it can compete again and do the club’s loyal fans proud.
Birmingham said if they needed to lose three-quarters of the squad and be left with only those whose heart was in the club, so be it. And he said if anything about his job had to be done in a half-hearted way, Jack Pearce had better sack him now.
The Rocks have won just three of their 23 league games so far and have conceded 57 goals. Tomorrow (Saturday) they go to Dulwich Hamlet with many fans fearing relegation is already inevitable.
Birmingham and Howell were appointed a week before Christmas after the club parted company with Robbie Blake at the end of November.
Speaking to Rocks Radio immediately after the Chi defeat, which saw City complete a league double over them that would have been unthinkable not long ago, Birmingham said: “It’s embarrassing. It’s nothing like what the club is about.
"They don’t wear the badge with any pride, any passion. There’s no desire, there’s no care, I don’t think they’ve been looking themselves fitness-wise.
"I think they’ve been in a very powerful position the last couple of years and they’re abusing the fact of the club. It’s disgusting. I’m not happy, not happy one bit. I will always protect players, I will always do what I believe is right, but I will tell them the truth.
"They let themselves down, they were a disgrace – a disgrace.”
Howell said the test facing the Rocks right now was a ‘massive conundrum’. “We’ve got players who have played well at the level that are just not performing very well at the moment.
"Sometimes that’s down to themselves, sometimes we can help them with that, but it was bitterly disappointing.
"We’ve given goals away. Fair play to Chichester, they were the better team by far, and that’s great for them but really disappointing for us to see how far we’ve fallen.
"We know what we need but talk is cheap. We’ll have to let our actions speak because we’re bottom of the league and it’s not good enough. We’re not going to keep going with the same people. We’re looking to next season, we’re looking for people who want to be at the club and can offer us something."
Birmingham said the City game was one between a team being ruthless in front of goal and one going through the motions, adding that the visitors showed purpose in the final third and the Rocks did not. “They’re (City are) aggressive, they’re ruthless, they have the desire to score, they’ll do anything for their team-mates, We’re not doing that.
"Everything about it is half-hearted and I’m sorry I’m not coming into a half-hearted job. If they want to do it half-hearted, Jack Pearce has got my number. he’d better sack me now. It’s not happening, I’m not allowing that again.
"They’re going to have to see the ugly side of us as well, it can’t always be nice.”
Howell said it was a club with fantastic facilities and good players but added: “Something’s just not right at the moment. There are so many things slightly not right that culminate in us being bottom of the league.
"We have to slowly but surely, step by step, keep improving things, and one of them helping the players that we think have a future at the football club, give them a platform and showcase what they can do.
"That might be a few players coming in, a few players going out, but we’ve got quite a few contracted players at the moment which ties our hands.
"We’ll keep going. The fans have been brilliant and Birmy and I always appreciate that and we deseprately want to give them something to smile about, We’re as disappointed as anyone because it’s a pretty bleak day.”
Asked if there were players who could be brought into the club to help turn things around, Birmingham said: “There are but it’s not short term, because who at Christmas is going to release their players to a team that’s rock bottom with morale being that low?
"We’re not naive. we’re not stupid. When we sat down with Jack we knew it was a rebuilding programme. Is it going to take a lot of time to get the club back to where it is (should be)? Oh my god, I’m not going to stand here and lie and go ‘no it won’t’.
"It’s one hell of a job, off the pitch, on the pitch, it’s one hell of a job, let’s get that straight, but from what we’ve got here with the fans and support and everything like that, I can guarantee – and I know Jamie will – that I won’t stop trying. I won’t stop trying to get this club back to where it needs to be and where it belongs.
“And if it means 75 per cent of the changing room going and we get those who haven’t got the ability but have got the heart and the desire and want to listen and learn, sorry, they’ve got to go.”