'A night to forget' for the Green Lions

‘I have been quite vocal in saying that in this league I had only seen one really decent team [Bracknell Town] – now I have seen two, or at least two who have put in performances against us where we have not been anywhere near good enough,’ said Tony Vance in assessing his side’s 6-0 defeat on Tuesday night.

‘That’s two teams I have seen who we are quite a way off.’

The Green Lions conceded three goals in either half of their latest Isthmian South Central outing as they succumbed to their fourth consecutive defeat to remain 16th in the 19-team league.

‘A night to forget, but in terms of the learning aspect of it, there should be some who use it as a night to recall and to self-critique,’ Vance said.

‘We were at our naive and weakest worst.

‘Marlow were a good side. They had unbelievable pace up front and throughout the pitch, and they took great joy from slaying a weakened performance from us.

'They wanted to score more goals – and probably should have done.

‘They were a very dominant force.’

But while their hosts were streetwise, Vance was disappointed that the group he took to Marlow were unable to deliver the game-plan.

‘The most frustrating thing for me is that we had a strong squad but did not do ourselves justice.

‘There is a group of players there and it has probably opened their eyes to the harsh reality of what can happen if you do not do the right things, or actually do the wrong things, against a team who get enjoyment from punishing it – they were almost teasing us into doing it as well.’

To rub salt into the wounds, GFC lost Tom Strawbridge to a groin injury while Thomas Dodds was replaced due to a quad problem.

Charlton Gauvain is now also set to miss a game through suspension having picked up another yellow card.

Vance did allow himself a wry joke, though, when he said a positive from the evening is that Ross Allen will be fresh for the next game having been an unused substitute.

‘Ross has been putting in significant distances and efforts since we got back on board, so to speak, and I thought he looked tired in the last game.

‘So with some games coming up, the plan was to bring him on with 15-20 minutes to go, but after 30 minutes it was pointless.’

Instead, it was a teenager who caught the eye for the Green Lions on an otherwise disappointing night.

‘Ben [Acey] was again our best player,’ Vance said.

‘It’s a credit to him that on the night he would have been one player I would have been looking to give the ball to as he looked after 90% of the time he had it.

‘As a 17-year-old in that environment, that is a huge compliment to him.’