FURIOUS manager Derek Binns reckons Bashley's band of under-achievers would struggle to live with the top guns of the Jewson Wessex League.

Accusing his side of "schoolboy football" after Saturday's galling 1-0 defeat by fellow basement boys Rugby United in the Dr Martens Eastern Division, Binns raged: "Rugby were awful - so what does that say about us?"

With a sackload of JWL silverware stashed away from his days in charge at Lymington & New Milton, Binns believes the so-called gap between the top Wessex clubs and the Southern League is non-existent.

He said: "I keep being told what a great league this is, but that was no better than a mediocre Wessex side we had out there. I've just told the players that they wouldn't make it halfway up the Jewson table with a performance like that.

"I've never seen a side give the ball away so much. The trouble with our players is they think they know better than everyone else.

"We ask them to keep things simple but they insist on doing their own thing all the time.

"This club is run along professional lines and the players are all well looked after.

"They're given everything they want and it's high time they started giving something back. The chairman, the club and spectators don't deserve performances like that.

"The players are cheating this club and, by rights, they should give their wages back because they've done nothing to earn them."

Bash, who were floored by a 40th-minute Luke Vincent strike, were without key senior players such as Andy Darnton, Darren Robson and Jimmy Anderson, but Binns refused to use that as an excuse.

Several of the younger element in the Recreation Ground camp harbour hopes of following Bournemouth's ex-Bash boy Wade Elliott into the professional ranks, but Binns said: "Too many of them think that Bashley is just a stepping stone into the pro game, but they're going to have to do a lot more if they're ever going to make it. At this rate, the only place we're going is into the Wessex League."

Craig Davis and David Byrom were the brightest sparks for Bashley, but it was Stuart Hussey who went closest with a stinging second-half shot that was tipped onto the bar by keeper Paul Beresford.