FAIRFORD Town boss Gareth Davies slammed his players for a ‘toothless’ Christmas bank holiday performance.

The Cinder Lane side made the trip to lowly Letcombe looking to close the gap on Hellenic League Division One West leaders Hook Norton.

However, Gavin Jones’ 57th minute goal saw the hosts claim a 1-0 success, much to the ire of Davies, and leave Fairford, who have two games in hand on Norton, eight points off the pace.

“We came with the wrong attitude and got turned over,” Davies fumed. “Too many of us were still having our Christmas dinners.

“The longer the game went on you could see it coming – we were toothless.”

Despite Fairford’s fine start, Davies highlighted it is trips to places like Letcombe which will decide where the title will end up this season.

Hook Norton went to Easington Sports on Boxing Day and won 3-0, while the Cinder Lane men struggled to get out of the blocks at Bassett Road.

“We were there to be shot down,” Davies said. “The players don’t want to do the horrible work in the poor conditions to get the points.

“You have to give credit to Letcombe for how they played, but with the quality that we have in our squad that performance was ridiculous.”

Meanwhile, Malmesbury Victoria’s Toolstation League First Division Boxing Day clash with Oldland Abbotonians, who also had two players dismissed, at the Flying Monk Ground was abandoned after they had five players and assistant manager Allan Webb sent off.

The two sides were locked at 1-1 with four minutes left on the clock when the referee brought a premature halt to proceedings.