PAOLO Di Canio will ask the board whether he can fine his players for “unprofessional behaviour” following the 2-0 home humbling at the hands of Macclesfield in the FA Cup on Saturday.

Town put in perhaps their most dismal display of the campaign, just four days after the monumental effort against Aston Villa, to exit the competition at the first-round stage as a Tony Diagne thunderbolt and a late own goal by Louis Thompson capped an afternoon to forget at the County Ground.

After the match Di Canio, who completely exonerated himself from any blame for the defeat, revealed that he wants to inflict a financial penalty on his squad – not for the loss itself but the manner in which it came.

“They proved today that they are very average and the manager can’t do more than this. Three days in a row I warned them to be careful. Their approach was absolutely pathetic, rubbish. The result is there,” he said.

“The approach wasn’t right and every action you make in the game something goes wrong, today they proved it and for this reason I am very upset and I will take some action. I will ask my club, for example, if it’s possible - in Italy normally it is possible for the manager - to ask for a fine because I think if you can’t help people feel the responsibility for themselves it proves that they are very empty.

“If you don’t have inner motivation to win this game, give everything, because you hope at some point to play a Premiership side.

“You have to have respect for the shirt, for the fans, for your family. If you don’t have even this one then the manager has to be straight. I know them, I want to change them completely.

“Normally people say you can’t change completely, I want to.

“If I have to go through the punishment then I will. I will ask my club if it’s possible to let them understand from now every time they play with this behaviour. “I don’t know if it’s possible because in England the players have too much protection.”