It was men against boys, admits Baldacchino - EXCLUSIVE

Slade Green assistant manager, Wayne Baldacchino has read his side the riot act following their 6-1 FA Cup drubbing at the hands of their Kent League rivals Croydon on Saturday, writes Stephen McCartney.

The Trams earned a first qualifying round trip to Godalming Town or Worthing following their win at The Small Glen.

And Baldacchino has promised changes ahead of their next game, a FA Vase first qualifying round tie at rivals Hythe Town on Saturday - the only tie involving Kent clubs at this stage of the competition.

Despite being without Paul Garrett (injured), Lee Barber (holiday), Shaun Malyon (holiday), John Paul McKey (work commitments) and Adam Morrish (fitness), Slade Green came out second best.

“Major changes will take place against Hythe,” Baldacchino promised, speaking EXCLUSIVELY to www.kentishfootball.co.uk.

“At times it was men against boys and we were 3-0 down in 19 minutes after some dreadful schoolboy defending.

“It was a shambles in the first half and the players were told about it at half-time.

“The second half was a slightly better performance but still way off what we expect from the players.

“We need to get some consistency in team selection, which means players need to be committed to the cause.

“That will give us consistency in performance and hopefully we can build from there.

“It has been very frustrating for Peter (Little) and I seeing so many goals going in and players under achieving but we have to get to grips with that and move on.”

Slade Green are expected to bring in "a few" new players ahead of their trip to Reachfields Stadium on Saturday.

Baldacchino said: “We start training at a new venue this week, which will be a big help and we have a few new faces arriving, which we hope will help plug some gaps.

“We expect to be at full strength this weekend in the Vase with the exception of captain Barber who is still on holiday.

“We very much hope the lads respond in the right way and give a much improved performance so we can erase the Croydon result from our memory.”

Visit Slade Green’s website: www.clubwebsite.co.uk/sladegreenfc/