Hawks coach Simon Walton labels squad ‘a soft touch’ after home loss to nine-man Ebbsfleet

In what could be the last league game at Westleigh Park this season, Walton was the main voice on the touchline for the second half of an eventful 2-1 National League South loss.

That was after manager Paul Doswell was sent off in the closing stages of the first period following a verbal spat with Ebbsfleet counterpart Dennis Kutrieb, who was also red carded.

With Hawks assistant manager Ian Baird absent due to illness, Walton was left to take charge and also attend the post-match media interviews.

His comments should make tough reading for a squad that is now 16 points adrift of leaders Dorking - with just three games in hand - following a fourth successive defeat, the club’s worst league run since September/October 2015.

‘Winning games of football should be hard,’ he stated.

‘It shouldn’t be easy, but we are making it easy for teams.

‘We are a soft touch, we are too easy to play against

‘I keep on saying the same things - it’s very frustrating and it upsets me.’

Walton added: ‘On the pitch it’s up to the players to do what they are paid to do, and at the moment not enough of them are doing it.

‘We’ve talked to the players - myself, Bairdy, the gaffer - but at times I feel I’m wasting my breath.’

The Ebbsfleet game followed a depressingly familiar pattern - Hawks conceding the first goal for the ninth time in their 14 league games this season.

In three of those games - at Billericay and at home to Dulwich and Oxford City - they recovered to take all three points.

But Walton knows you can’t always do that, and since the turn of the year Eastbourne, Bath, Hemel and now Ebbsfleet have all taken an early lead - and all have gone on to win.

It only took Ebbsfleet four minutes to open the scoring, the Hawks defence undone by a crisp passing movement and Rakish Bingham easily converting an Alfie Egan cross.

‘To concede first in nine of the 14 league games we’ve played tells you everything you need to know,’ said Walton.

‘We have to work really hard to score against teams, but they don’t have to work too hard to score against us.’

It was hard to argue with that statement.

Due to the pandemic, it’s been a stop-start season - Hawks have only played five league games since December 12 and have three times entered a 10-day period of self-isolation.

In a campaign such as this one, there could be excuses offered - but Walton is in no mood whatsoever to listen to them.

‘There were no extenuating circumstances for Ebbsfleet with nine men, there weren’t any for Hemel when they beat us 2-0,’ he stated.

‘There should be no excuses.

‘It’s been a strange season but it’s the same for everyone. If there’s any players who want to make excuses, they’re at the wrong club.’