CANVEY boss Danny Heale has branded their defensive display against Concord as “woeful” and admitted they folded “like a pack of cards”.

The Gulls generally gave a good account of themselves against their higher league hosts, but a five-minute capitulation midway through the first half saw Concord race into an unassailable 3-0 lead and effectively kill the quarter-final county cup tie on Tuesday night.

Heale said: “We did exactly the same thing against Hendon last month (a 4-2 defeat in the league) and it’s just not good enough.

“I’ve told my players that if they concede then they have to get behind the ball for 10 minutes and dig in and stay in the game. I don’t know why they are not doing that. Our two centre halves were woeful and that’s frustrating because I know they are good players.

“It just sums up our inconsistency this season because we kept a clean sheet on Saturday and looked solid.

“But that’s is us all over – we sometimes fold like a pack of cards.

“Concord are a good side but I thought we held our own and we were better in the second half. I didn’t think it was a penalty for their last goal, but that does not really matter.

“I told my players we had a bad first half so they needed to go out and put it right in the second half, and I was glad to see they did that a bit.

“Now we just need to take that into our game on Saturday.”

Heale took Rob Bartley off at half-time in the 4-0 defeat against the Beachboys, but admitted it could have easily have been his central defensive partner Rio Bryan-Edwards.

The manager explained: “Rob was on four bookings and one more would have meant he would have missed our game with Billericay on New Year’s Day.

“But Nick Humphrey came on and did well and there’s no reason why he should not keep his place (at Kingstonian in the Ryman Premier) on Saturday now.”

Concord – who return to Skrill South action at home to Havanat & Waterlooville on Saturday – now have a place in the semi-finals of the county cup to look forward to.