Torquay United manager Paul Wotton says his side’s 5-0 loss at home to Chelmsford City was “not acceptable”.
The loss – a third in succession and a fourth in five winless games – sees Wotton’s injury-hit side slip to fourth place in National League South.
They are now 10 points off leaders Dorking Wanderers, having led the division by three points after beating Dover Athletic 25 days ago.
The Gulls, who were without the likes of Sam Dreyer, Callum Dolan and Jordan Young saw their injury woes increase when striker Cody Cooke suffered a dislocated shoulder just before half time.
At that time they were 2-0 down thanks to an excellent seventh-minute strike from Charlee Adams and a Jett Murphy goal shortly before the interval.
Wotton made a triple change at the break and Jordan Young, Kieran Wilson, Matt Jay and Louis Dennis all went close in the opening 10 minutes of the second half.
But Aaron Taylor made it 3-0 in the 62nd minute before Harry Barbrook and Ben Tompkins completed the rout in the final few minutes to move Chelmsford up to ninth in the division.
“5-0 at home is not acceptable is it?” Wotton told BBC Radio Devon.
“I was really disappointed with the first half – they’ve scored a wonder goal, the second goal was really poor.
“The mad thing is the start of the second half we started really, really well, front-footed, had two or three really good chances, but the third goal was just the nail in the coffin.
“It’s been a horrendous month, it’s been awful, but I’m not going to sit here and feel sorry for myself and bemoan injuries and all this sort of stuff.
“We’ve lost 5-0 at home, there’s no hiding place.”
