CARETAKER manager John Snape apologised for Worcester City’s dismal display at basement side Altrincham as they slumped to a demoralising 2-0 defeat.

Elliott Newby scored inside the opening 11 seconds before captain Chris Lynch netted from close range on 12 minutes.

And Worcester failed to recover from their sluggish start as the hosts went on to register only their second victory of the season in Vanarama National League North.

Snape admitted his side “were not good enough” and felt they could not “go any lower” as third-from-bottom Worcester’s winless run stretched to 14 league matches.

“We were all at sea and for about 15 minutes their hunger and desire to win the ball was evidently a lot more than ours,” he said.

“We changed the shape as it wasn’t working but as a squad of players we weren’t receptive to what we had to do.

“I think every one of them tried but the question for the players and myself to ask ourselves is are we good enough individually and collectively?

“Are we doing the right things? But we will look at that in the week and see if we can turn things around.

“We weren’t good enough at Altrincham and I apologise for that.”

After starting with a 3-5-2 City switched to a 4-4-2 formation and brought James Chambers and Andy Gallinagh on in place of Chekaine Steele and Jordan Murphy at half-time.

Worcester started the second period brightly but they failed to get a shot on target in the entire match.

“If I look back at any positive in the game we started the second half a lot better,” Snape said.

“We set our stall out with Andy and Chambo coming on and we had a go for 15 minutes when I thought Altrincham were all at sea.

“But the problem was we still didn’t work the goalkeeper enough and have that goal threat. We were guilty of missing a couple of headers from set-plays.

“The game petered out at 2-0 as they slowed the game down and we made silly fouls which became a bit annoying in the last 10 minutes.

“We were too deep and gave them some silly half-chances to make the win look more convincing.”

Snape appreciated the support City received from the travelling fans and urged his team for a reaction when they host play-off chasing Darlington 1883 on Saturday (3pm).

“I would like to thank the supporters again,” said Snape whose side are two points adrift of safety.

“They were absolutely outstanding coming this way, watching their side get beaten and seeing that first-half performance.

“There was an improvement in the second half but not enough to get ourselves back into the game.

“To be honest I don’t think we can go any lower. At the minute everyone thinks we are done and beaten but let’s see how the staff and the players react as we have got another tough game at home against Darlington.”