LINNETS' assistant manager Richie Phippard labelled this their "worst display of the season by far" after watching his side slump to defeat at fellow strugglers Burgess Hill.

The Sussex side won with a 36th-minute strike from Lloyd Cotton and second half goals from Mark Pulling and Richard Greenfield.

Burgess Hill even missed a penalty when Serge Musungu shot straight at Linnets keeper Mark Watson.

Defeat leaves Linnets with only five wins from 22 matches and just four teams, including Burgess Hill, below them in Ryman League Division One.

It is a worrying scenario that Phippard is not too happy about, and he didn't mince his words.

He told the Daily Echo: "Our players showed no passion, no desire and no will to want the ball. It was that bad.

"I don't even know where we are supposed to go from here. In all honesty we would have been better off not turning up, we should have just given them the three points.

"We had one shot in the whole game. It was that poor and they weren't even a good side, but what they had was a lot of passion, desire and they wanted to win the ball, and we didn't have any of those.

"If we don't get this type of performance out of our system in the near future we are going to be strong candidates for relegation.

"And if we don't drag ourselves out of it we will find ourselves going back down after the club had spent 10 years of trying to get promoted into this division.

"We have got to improve. We have to try and get more out of the players we have got, or we will have to try and bring new players in because this performance was just not acceptable.

"I wish I could put my finger on it, why we can work well in training with Nicky Banger, but then go out and play like that on a Saturday when we knew it was important to get something out of this game.

"We will get it right though. The management team of Ian Robinson, Nicky and I won't give up.

"We will get every ounce of what we can out of the players we have got and we will also change the personnel if we have to.

"We are not putting our jobs on the line for players who aren't prepared to give us 100 per cent and we have told them that."

Defender John Grace made his debut for Linnets. He had signed in midweek after Brockenhurst had waived the seven days of approach rule.

Lymington and New Milton: Watson, Grace, Powell, Gilbert, Lang (Llewellyn 75), James, Woods, Rowe, P Smith, Mulhern (Chudy 50), Stokoe (Crook 60).