Peter Taylor accused City of shooting themselves in the foot after they crashed 4-0 at Cheltenham.

Taylor felt three of the goals were down to errors from his own men.

And he refused to use rustiness from the team’s lack of recent action as an excuse for the heaviest loss during his Valley Parade tenure.

Taylor said: “This was a good opportunity missed. I don’t want to take anything away from Cheltenham but unfortunately some of the things that happened were from our mistakes. We gave the ball away in bad areas with no care, and that’s very poor on our part.

“Nine times out of ten, you concede goals when you haven’t got good shape and we certainly gave them away.

“I suppose people have got a bit of an excuse (from not playing). All of a sudden you’ve had a problem with training indoors on a five-a-side court for a long time.

“But as far as I’m concerned, we’re in the same boat as Cheltenham.

“I’m sure they had the same frustrations as us but they still looked sharper than us. They got things going a little bit better and that’s not right to me.”

City had boasted the third best defence in the division and let in only three goals from the previous six games.

But they could not handle Cheltenham front two Wesley Thomas and Jeff Goulding – and gifted goals to the home side.

Taylor added: “We have defended better lately but at the minute, come 3pm time, I’m not convinced exactly what we’re going to do.

“Maybe it’s because we’re too young and the younger ones aren’t as consistent as they should be. But the manner in which we gave the goals away was very disappointing.

“Just before they got their goals, we were going forward and always looked as though we were going to score.

“Just before their first we had chances, with Gareth Evans’ shot and James Hanson going through. Then they go down the other end and we make a bad error and give away a goal.”

Evans made his first start for almost three months and his performance was the only positive in the manager’s eyes.

“He’s been desperate to start and I said to everybody afterwards that he was the best player by a mile.

“Gareth showed how much he wanted to be back in the team and we needed a bit more like that.

“I’m not saying players didn’t work but maybe we didn’t put that in the right way.”

Winger Omar Daley was ruled out yesterday with a swollen knee and is struggling to make the Lincoln game on Saturday.

Taylor admitted: “It’s probably down to the indoor training facilities because of the harder surface.

“He might have a chance but I’d say he’s still doubtful.”