Simon Ramsden heads back to Rochdale tonight with the chilling warning: Play like Saturday again and it will be double figures.

City’s pitiful display at Accrington in Peter Taylor’s first game in charge has raised fears of another thrashing from the leaders.

Rochdale romped to a 3-0 win at Valley Parade in December, and Ramsden pulls no punches about the possible outcome against his old club this evening if there is a repeat of the weekend’s no-show.

The new skipper said: “We know it’s going to be very tough. Unless we bring our A game it’s going to be a very long night.

“It doesn’t get any tougher in our league and Rochdale played us off the park at our place.

“Hopefully we can go there and put up a much better fight. But if we play like we did against Accrington then it will be double figures.”

Taylor will field new loan defender Robbie Threlfall tonight and is looking to add more fresh faces quickly. After a chastening first game he admitted: “Something is not right.”

Taylor added: “It’s handy for me that Wayne (Jacobs) is still in the building and will remain here. He knows what the players are capable of and knows they are better than that.

“It was a very, very poor performance and the crowd reaction at the end was understandable.

“But I don’t think it was through lack of effort but lack of confidence. That’s what the players have got to show me.

"There’s something not right, whether it’s a lack of confidence, lack of caring or lack of ability, but I believe it’s the confidence that’s missing.

“We seemed to drop a little bit when the (James) Hanson chance didn’t go in.

“I think the result on Saturday was the right one over 90 minutes but it might have been different if we’d scored first.”

Skipper Ramsden agreed that a run of just one win in ten games has left dressing-room morale fragile.

He said: “You can spot it a mile off. Certain people are lacking in confidence at the minute.

“But the only way you can get out of that is by winning and play well.

“Saturday was the total opposite from what we were looking for. We had a new manager, a big crowd following us and there were high expectations.

“But from the first to last whistle it wasn’t good enough all over the pitch. From one to 11 we didn’t perform.

“When you look at the size of this club and the following we had on Saturday, we just let them down. It’s definitely not good enough and something has to be done.

“We’ve had a few strong words about it because we can’t continue like that.

“We know what to expect with Rochdale after last time. They are a good footballing side who like to get it down and pass.

“There won’t be the aerial threat like Accrington, who played a lot of direct balls into (Michael) Symes which caused us problems. They are a passing team with lots of movement.”