Fleetwood Town manager, Pete Wild, was furious with his players after they were defeated 4-0 at home by Swindon Town.
The Cod Army entered the weekend off the back of two wins in which they had scored four goals and with the outside chance of a late playoff tilt, entering the day six points from the top seven.
But Swindon tore Fleetwood apart, scoring four goals and running riot in the second half to record Town’s joined second-biggest league away win, with only the 7-1 victory over Watford in September 10951 being by a bigger margin.
Speaking to BBC Radio Lancashire after the match, Wild said that he had learned a lot about his players during the heavy defeat.
He said: “I thought that we lacked everything that we want them [the players] to be.
“I thought that the old Fleetwood turned up today, the Fleetwood that we [Wild and assistant Adam Temple] walked into, and I have just said that to them.
“If they work as hard as they can and we get beaten by the better side, then I will always defend them, but when they don’t work as hard as they can [then I won’t].
“We just didn’t see any fight, desire, passion, or anything that we want to build, anything that the fans want, and anything that we are trying to be.
“This nonsense about the playoffs that everybody keeps asking me about, we were never going to get into the playoffs because the team is like it was.
“The team has got the same frailties that it has had all season, and on any given day, I don’t know what I am going to get from them.
“Some weeks are great, and some weeks they chuck in that.
“I think this nonsense since Thursday that we were going to get in the playoffs is utter rubbish.
“I never thought this squad had the capabilities to do that because all of the things across the season show you that."
Wild was, however, impressed by what Swindon did and the plan that they were able to execute to make his players look so abject.
He said: “I thought that Swindon were excellent today. They came with a plan to stop us and stop us doing what we are good at.
“They did that to a tee, and our lads didn’t have anything in response, so they didn’t give what they needed to when that happened.”
