Braintree Town manager Alan Devonshire pulled no punches in his assessment of his players’ FA Cup performance, saying they had let the club down on the big stage.

The Iron were well-beaten by League One Chesterfield in front of the television cameras and shipped six goals as they failed to make it past the first round proper for a third season running.

There wasn’t even the solace of a consolation goal at the other end to fall back on and Devonshire was damning in his verdict.

He said: “We did alright for five minutes, but after that I thought we were poor.

“I’m bitterly disappointed and I feel the players have let the club down.

“They are better than that.

“I know that, the fans know that and they see it week-in week-out.

“I’m trying to put my finger on it but I just don’t know why it was.

“I’m very disappointed with that performance and all we can do now is move on.

“It was poor all over the pitch.

“We didn’t go with runners, there were sloppy mistakes and we just couldn’t clear the ball.

“I lost count of how many times we scuffed the ball straight to one of their players ten yards away.

“We were slipping all over the place, but I had told them to make sure they had on the right footwear, so it was just poor."