Knight has no excuses for ‘shocking’ display

Racing Club Warwick manager Lee Knight refused to pull any punches after seeing his side go down to a 3-0 home defeat at the hands of Bolehall Swifts.

A lacklustre display saw Racers concede a goal inside the opening three minutes and had it not been for the visitors having four efforts disallowed, the scoreline would have looked much worse.

“I’m not going to gloss it over. It was shocking,” said Knight, who left himself out of the 16-man squad.

“It was close to the strongest side I could pick and we’ve been outbattled by an under-20 side.

“Three or four of the more experienced lads didn’t turn up and Bolehall had more endeavour and passion than us.

“It’s not good enough. People need to start stepping up to the plate.”

The defeat was all the more disappointing for Knight as it followed on from an 0-0 draw at third-placed Castle Vale the previous Saturday.

The Racers manager is now left with the task of lifting his players for the last 11 games, with Racers still five points adrift at the bottom.

“We just need to improve our consistency levels and put in back-to-back performances,” he added.

“If we’d performed even half as good as we did at Castle Vale we’d have got something from the game.

“But we can’t get too disheartened, there’s still a lot of football to be played.”

After a minute’s silence for former player Conrad Lewis, Racing Club were slowly out of the blocks.

Michael Blakeman deflected a Dave Haywood free-kick into his own net to give the visitors the lead and Bolehall saw two more efforts disallowed.

A neat turn from Grant Roscarla set Michael Swan up for a simple finish to make it 2-0 in the 35th minute.

With Racers overrun in midfield, Bolehall found the net again three minutes later, only to be denied by an offside flag.

David Sheward wasted Racers’ only sight of goal, lashing over a flick-on from substitue Warwick Alexander in the 55th minute.

Roscarla was twice denied by Matty Marshall before Jamie Huball made the points safe for the visitors in the 87th minute.

Roscarla thought he had made it four in time added on after racing clear and deftly chipping the ball over Marshall. However, the referee had already blown his whistle after a fight broke out in the Bolehall half. Swifts’ Conor Fulford saw yellow for his part in the fracas, with Alexander unlucky to receive his marching orders after what looked to be a case of mistaken identity.

Racing entertain Cadbury Athletic tomorrow (3pm).