MANAGER Pete Tripp was angered by the decision of at least four of his players to play Sunday morning football at the weekend as troubled Devizes crashed to their biggest defeat of the season on Tuesday night.

The title-chasing hosts showed their struggling visitors no mercy and were a goal up inside the first minute.

They raced into a three-goal lead by the interval and Tripp was left to question just how seriously some of his players are taking his side's grim struggle against relegation.

He said: "Some of them turned up and had played on Sunday. When you do that and come up against a side chasing the title two days later, you haven't got a chance.

"It shows a disrespect to me and the club but I can't do anything about it. They aren't under contract so they can do what they like. The players know their places aren't in jeopardy because I can't bring in any other lads at the moment."

Tripp admitted the timing of Brislington's opener had been particularly galling given his side's fragile confidence.

He said: "We battled in the second half but, once we gave them one, we were never, ever going to come back against a side like that.

"They had a dream start and it could have been more than three at half-time. They were over-eager to get at us and kept getting caught offside."

The Devizes boss conceded his side had produced another disappointing display, but was keen to draw some positives from the performance.

He said: "There were some decent performances out there. Andy Coombes did superbly after being asked to play at right back and Ben Hardman worked his socks off."

Devizes face a do-or-die game at Barnstaple on Saturday. Tripp's men are five points behind the third from bottom hosts with a game in hand.

Bottom club Welton are level on points with Devizes and have a glorious chance of victory on Saturday. They host crisis club Dawlish, who have shipped 17 goals in their last two games.

Striker Neil Dix will miss the rest of the season after breaking his ankle on Saturday, but skipper Dave Hopkins and Nick Mooney are set to return.

Said Tripp: "It is a massive, massive game and we've got to go there and win it. This is our last chance.

"If we lose at Barnstaple all we can do is match Welton's results and hope we finish above them."