Dean Thomas fury at 'abysmal' Hinckley United display

Dean Thomas said Hinckley United's 3-1 defeat by Blyth was the "lowest point" in his 15 years as manager of the club.

The Knitters have dropped into the Blue Square Bet North Premier relegation zone and, with one game left, their fate is no longer in their own hands.

Hinckley trail three teams by a point so even a win against Stalybridge on Saturday could see them relegated.

"It was abysmal. I have never felt so low in 15 years of managing Hinckley," Thomas told BBC Radio Leicester.

"We had a good week's training and prepared well but it all went out of the window as soon as the players went down the tunnel.

"We lacked commitment, passion and energy. It all went missing in the first half. The minimum requirement is effort and we lacked it in abundance.

"All I can do it apologise to the supporters.

"I have never, in 15 years of managing Hinckley, witnessed such a poor, poor performance from one of my teams. We lacked fight and desire - everything you would expect in a game of football.

"Football is a warrior's game where you need to fight, scrap and win your battles and hopefully the football will come after that. We showed none of that.

"It was absolutely shocking. We never got a foothold in the game at all."

Hinckley need to better the result of at least one of the three teams above them to stand a chance of avoiding the drop.

But both Workington and Solihull Moors have superior goal difference so a draw may not be enough.

And Thomas says all that will be irrelevant as his side will lose if they replicate Saturday's performance when they travel to face play-off chasing Stalybridge.

"You need courage to scrap through difficult situations and characters," Thomas added.

"When it really mattered we could not put in a performance, and another performance like that and we will be relegated. If we play like that again we haven't got a prayer.

"If we don't scrap and battle against Stalybridge we have no chance. There's nowhere to hide.

"We are all responsible. There's nowhere to hide. The league doesn't lie and we haven't been good enough. Hopefully next Saturday we will be."