MICHAEL Clegg expects several players to have made their last appearances for Warrington Rylands, such is the manager’s disappointment at Saturday’s 3-2 home loss to bottom side Bradford Park Avenue.

Clegg, whose promotion chasers slipped to fourth in the Northern Premier League Premier Division as a result, signed a new two-year contract on Friday and made it clear he does not intend for standards to slip.

His side were level of when James Butler was sent off in the 61st minute and Bradford went on to score a late winner.

“I am gutted to be honest,” said Clegg after Bradford’s eight-match losing run came to an end at Gorsey Lane courtesy of an 87th-minute strike by Chinedu Osadebe.

“We were good in the first 10 minutes and we came in at half-time 2-2 but we just hadn’t played well.

“And then I thought we’d go and control the second half but we played half an hour with 10 men and then it’s tough, and against a team who were good on the counter.

“It’s been a mad couple of weeks, losing key players to injuries and obviously Adama Sidibeh going.

“And it’s kind of a bit of a rejuggle mid-season which isn’t ideal and our form will tell you we’re struggling at the moment with that.

“But to earn our money we’ve got to go and put it right.

“The chairman’s keen on us staying up there, we’re keen on staying up there, so we’ve already tried to bring in a couple of players but this weekend was a little bit too soon.

“We need to freshen the group a touch and get a couple of additions in because we’re like bare bones at the moment.

“We had some big games over Christmas and we’ve just not got back going in 2024.

“Today was definitely the low point since I’ve been here for a year. I just thought too many people were doing their own thing today and they’ve been told.

“And I’d be surprised if we see a couple of them play for us again, I’ll be honest, and I’m not normally that controversial in interviews but we’ve set some high standards here and some of them aren’t up to that at the moment.

“People have been given their chances and they’re not taking them so we’re going to have to bring people in, people are going to have to go because it’s an unacceptable performance and it’s not every day you hear me saying that.

“We’re still in a good position, we’ve got 12 games left and we’ve just got to raise to try and finish in them play-offs, but that performance and that group today wouldn’t do that if they perform like that.

“You wouldn’t win any games in the NPL playing like that so for us, we’ve got to earn our money as staff now. We work hard as it is but obviously with seven-day approaches we’re hoping to bring a couple in on Thursday/Friday.”