Ashford United boss Kevin Watson and his players are to refund fans who witnessed their 6-0 thumping at East Grinstead on Saturday.

It was a second successive Isthmian South East defeat for the Nuts & Bolts, following a 5-3 loss against Phoenix Sports a fortnight ago.

The manner of the defeat, against a Wasps side who had lost their opening four matches, angered Watson.

He stressed he was to blame as the manager and said he took the defeat personally.

“First and foremost, I need to apologise to yourselves and the club and the fans,” Watson said in his post-match Nuts & Bolts interview.

“I just said to the players they’re going to have to, between them, between us - I’ll put in as well - pay for the fans’ travel and entry today because it’s absolutely not acceptable.

“It’s not so much about the result - I think you do lose in life and in football that’s inevitable at some point - but the performance was extremely poor.

“We’re most accountable as a management team.

“We got it wrong today, somehow, whether it was personnel, whether it was shape, whether it was information, whether it was motivation, so any blame needs to come towards us and not the players really.

“But that’s not acceptable. I won’t accept what’s happened.

“There’s been some performances this season that I don’t think have been up to standard and maybe we’ve limped through them.

“But today I saw aspects in the game that probably I haven’t seen to the extreme with so many players, which is clearly a concern and I’ve just said to them in there I take it personally.

“I try to take myself out of the equation because none of this is about me, it’s about the club and the players, but I have taken today personally because if we’re asking them to do things and be a certain way in a certain manner and they haven't done that, I think there’s a level of disrespect.

“But, in terms of accountability, any negativity, any blame from the fans or anyone from the club, needs to be directed towards me and not the players because I’m accountable.

“I choose the players, I select the players, I brought the players to the club, so if they’re not performing that’s poor judgement from me.”

Ashford are at Hythe tomorrow night in a rearranged league match.