Braintree Town manager Jamie Day was scathing in his assessment of his players’ performance as they were beaten 3-1 by Torquay United.

The Iron had come into the Bank Holiday weekend looking to build on a win against Aldershot Town, but a defeat at Barrow was followed by a lacklustre display against the Gulls at the Ironmongery Direct Stadium.

Day was frank in his assessment of his team’s performance.

He said: “I think a bit of passion and desire to win a game of football was the first thing missing.

“I said to them in them in the dressing room that we’ll have to find other players if they don’t have that because we can’t carry players in games.

“You do that against any side at this level and you’ll get beaten.

“We’ve done it against Torquay and there’s half the squad not performing and reaching the levels that they’re capable of doing.

“So I’m extremely disappointed as we’ve lost four out of seven now and that’s not good enough.

“I don’t – and supporters don’t – want to watch performances like that where some of the boys are going through the motions.

“It doesn’t matter what formation you play, if you don’t have boys who want to run around and get stuck in and tackle, it doesn’t matter.

“You can play all the formations and change it but unless you have 11 players who want to play for the shirt and for me and are willing to put tackles in, wanting to get in the box to score goals and block shots then you aren’t going to win games.

“We didn’t have that against Torquay.”