SHOLING boss Dave Diaper admitted “we got what we deserved” after his side flopped 3-2 at Cirencester Town on Saturday.

The Southern One South & West defeat could have been down to tiredness or pure lack of desire.

Either way, Diaper fears his team will be in deep trouble if they don’t improve for home games against form side Yate on Wednesday (7.45pm) and third-placed Merthyr on Saturday.

Sholing couldn’t have asked for a better start at Cirencester, taking the lead through Marvin McLean with just five minutes gone.

But they conceded a Ben Wells goal on the stroke of half-time and, according to Diaper, “didn’t really show up” after the break as the Gloucestershire club took control.

Shane Bumphrey put the hosts ahead from a Wells free-kick just after the hour and, although Byron Mason quickly netted a superb 25-yarder to level, Aidan Bennett sealed the Boatmen’s fate with 12 minutes to go.

“We got what we deserved. We didn’t play very well and too many players had an off-day,” summed up Diaper, whose side have slipped to 17th on the back of a second successive away defeat.

“We showed no desire and we didn’t look like we wanted to win.

“At 2-2 we had opportunities to score a third, but we kept giving the ball away. We conceded silly free kicks all afternoon and let in two scrappy goals.

“It looked more like an end-of-season game for us, as if the lads were ready to party and go away for the summer. But we’ve still got 21 league games to play.

“We’ve got Yate coming up and, if we play against them like we played today, we’ll get mullered.

“The basic I expect from the players is hard work and we didn’t have that today.

“But luckily I don’t have to tell the lads, they know it already.

“It’s frustrating that we were so good against Havant & Waterlooville (in the Hampshire Senior Cup) and then we come to Cirencester and play like that.”