SALISBURY City boss Darrell Clarke admitted his side’s Conference South title hopes had “gone” after Tuesday night’s 2-0 home loss to Basingstoke Town, writes Joel Holt.

Having led the way at the summit for months, Salisbury now find themselves two points behind leaders Welling, who have three games in hand, leaving Clarke fuming.

“Now is the time for my players to stand up and be counted,” he said.

“They’ve got to dig deep, and the team out there on Tuesday didn’t look like one of mine.

“The performance was poor and I don’t take very kindly to it. “I need characters and there were none, it was definitely our worst defeat of the season. We’ve lost games perhaps we didn’t deserve to lose. “But the league has gone. We’re miles away from the league title and that’s how realistic we’re.

“But what I must do is get the boys back to basics and get them believing again.

“We’ll continue fighting in every match. There were a lot of disappointed faces in the changing room as you can imagine.”

The Whites, who are without a win in their past four games, have suffered with matters off the pitch, including a recent point deduction.

Due to Elliott Frear’s third loan spell not being received by the Football Conference/FA on time for their match at AFC Hornchurch on January 12, City were docked the point they earned that day in a 2-2 draw.

“It should never have happened, that’s my view,” added Clarke.

“It’s an honest mistake, and that’s what it’s, but it can’t happen at any football club.

“I’m obviously disappointed we’ve lost a point, but we have to move on and make sure we start turning draws into wins.

“My players and I knew it was going to happen a few weeks ago but we’ve got to get on with it.”

Salisbury travel to Weston-super-Mare on Saturday (3pm). Clarke said: “They’re flying and it’s another difficult game.”