BRAINTREE Town manager Brad Quinton vowed that his players would have a tough week as they looked to atone for a shocking FA Cup performance at Brackley Town.

Quinton admitted that his team were well off the pace as they lost 4-1 in the third qualifying round to the Vanarama National League North side and has demanded an improvement when they return to league action on Saturday.

Braintree, who are still second in Vanamara National League South, head to Gloucester City at the weekend, but Quinton insisted there would be some gruelling training sessions to sharpen them up ahead of that trip.

“I know what the FA Cup means to our club and I feel we threw away an opportunity to do well,” he said.

“We are second in the league and our form has been fantastic with the boys doing well, but this is tough and a bitter pill to take.

“We will have some hard sessions in training this week.

“Everyone will get a copy of the game to watch and they can analyse their own games and see where they didn’t perform as they didn’t take in what we told them to do.

“A cup exit like this hurts the whole club.

“This Saturday, they owe me, they owe the chairman, they owe the directors and they owe the fans a massive performance.

“I expect a huge improvement in individual performances.

“I’ve learned a lot from this.

“I know that we can’t rely on past and present performances and we need to adapt better to tougher occasions.

“Players can’t underestimate what this level of football is about.

“We should have performed better and there are no excuses for that. I can’t have people relaxed and relying on performances of two or three weeks ago to justify their place.”

Quinton said there would be changes made for the trip to Gloucester and, having confirmed to the Times that midfielder Scott Shulton was leaving the club, added that he was expecting to have a look at some new targets this week.

“We have to focus on the league now,” added Quinton.

“It’s gutting to go out - very disappointing, but we need to have our focus on the next game.

“There will be changes and the boys understand that.

“I’m going to to out at games looking at players this week while my staff take the training sessions as I’m not resting on performances like that.

Continued on page 55 “People need to perform better in situations than what we saw at Brackley if they want to be part of my plans for this club going forward.

“I am out looking but anyone coming in will have to be the right fit.”

Quinton said Ben Wyatt, who missed the trip to Brackley with a knee injury would be assessed this week, but admitted he was a doubt for the game at Gloucester, while another full-back, Jon Muleba, was also a doubt after coming off in the FA Cup defeat with a knee problem.