Brian Reid branded Albion Rovers' thrashing at the hands of Stranraer "totally unacceptable" - and warned his squad they are now playing for their futures at the club.
The Cliftonhill boss watched his side ship five goals without reply in their penultimate home match of the season as their five game unbeaten run came to a shuddering halt, leaving them eighth in the table and six points behind their sixth-place rivals with three games of League Two remaining.
Reid was taken aback by the manner of the display after their recent run and says players who don't make amends could find themselves shipped out of the club at the end of the season.
He blasted: "It was poor all round from start to finish, and it was very surprising because that was on the back of five games undefeated and four clean sheets out of five.
"To throw in that performance is a hard one to take.
"It was a big game for us because if we'd beat Stranraer we could have been level on points with them and given us a chance to finish higher than we are right now.
"I'm looking for a massive reaction now because that is totally unacceptable.
"We were going through the motions, which is not like us because we've got good characters in the dressing room.
"We just downed tools, there was no energy about us, we were flat.
"That's probably the worst we've played all season. We never won a tackle, never won a header and, if you do that, this is the result.
"It's not acceptable because I've still to decide whether some of these guys are going to be at Albion Rovers next season or elsewhere.
"Every single player didn't put in a good enough performance.
"You've got to work hard and make the opposition work hard, but they didn't and I told the players I'm not going to accept that.
"You can have bad performances but you can't go from the run we were on to that, especially in front of our own supporters.
"I won't have anyone make complaints about the pitch as an excuse because it was the same for both teams.
"Stranraer wanted it more than us and that's how the result came about.
"Losing five goals at home is not good enough.
"If any player keeps performing like that they won't be going up the way next season, they'll be going to the Lowland League or below.
"That level of performance won't get anyone a new contract or a move up the leagues.
"These next three games, they are playing for their future at the club - or they will be going elsewhere."
Rovers fell behind after just three minutes when Matthew Yates opened the scoring. Seven minutes into the second half Tommy Muir added a second before a late goal flurry saw Ayrton Sonkur, Craig Ross and Paul Woods net in the final six minutes to complete the rout.
The manner of the goals infuriated Reid, who felt the first two strikes for the Blues should have been ruled out.
He added: "The first goal looked like the boy could have been offside and the second one, I could see it from where I was that the boy was a yard offside.
"We've still got to stop simple balls in behind us and defend the situation better.
"To rub salt into the wounds, we lost two very late goals. You have to concentrate for 90-odd minutes, not just chuck it, which a lot of them did.
"That's unacceptable in any team I'm manager at and they were told that in no uncertain terms."
A trip to fifth-place Stenhousemuir now awaits Rovers this weekend and although they have yet to beat the Warriors this season, Reid believes his side can get the win that can boost their hopes of equalling or bettering last season's seventh-place finish in League Two.
"Stenny are a decent squad with a good budget. They spent money in the summer and they are still battling to finish in the top four so they've got something to play for, but so do we," said Reid.
"We are more than capable of going there and getting a result but we will have to perform at a level far greater than we did on Saturday."
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