PAUL Hurst watched his Grimsby Town side beaten for the fourth Conference match in succession, last night – and admitted "that's as bad as it gets."
Struggling Nuneaton clinched a 1-0 victory on home turf, but it was the manner of the Mariners' defeat that will alarm Town fans most.
Far from being overawed or outplayed by their promotion-chasing visitors, Kevin Wilkin's battlers were the superior side for large parts of the game.
In fact, Town failed to force home keeper Lee Burge into a save across the 90 minutes, and lacked any cutting edge whatsoever.
Rob Scott and Hurst's men may remain in fifth place following the defeat, but it certainly wasn't the build-up to Sunday's FA Trophy final at Wembley that Town's players, managers and supporters were dreaming of.
"Everything was wrong," said Hurst. "I can't pick any positives out, apart from the fact that we turned up on time for the game. But we might as well have not bothered. That's as bad as it gets. "There's all the talk of Wembley on Sunday, but I don't see how that can be the case – apart from one or two who might think 'I'll be playing anyway because there's no one else' – no one has put their case forward to play at Wembley. "We've got to pick a team to go out there. If I'm a player I'm doing everything I can to get in the team – it looks like they don't want to play there. "If our team we put out last night isn't good enough to perform and beat Nuneaton – who fully deserved the victory – then we've got it massively wrong about the players we've got at the football club."
In Pictures: Nuneaton Town v Grimsby Town
"Everything was wrong," said Hurst. "I can't pick any positives out, apart from the fact that we turned up on time for the game. But we might as well have not bothered. That's as bad as it gets. "There's all the talk of Wembley on Sunday, but I don't see how that can be the case – apart from one or two who might think 'I'll be playing anyway because there's no one else' – no one has put their case forward to play at Wembley. "We've got to pick a team to go out there. If I'm a player I'm doing everything I can to get in the team – it looks like they don't want to play there. "If our team we put out last night isn't good enough to perform and beat Nuneaton – who fully deserved the victory – then we've got it massively wrong about the players we've got at the football club."
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