Under-fire Hythe manager Tim Dixon got stuck into his players on Tuesday night.

Dixon watched the Cannons lose 2-0 to newly-promoted Whyteleafe at Reachfields, a result which left them second-bottom in Ryman League Division 1 South and without a home win in six attempts.

The defeat followed a 7-1 hammering for Hythe in the FA Cup at Ebbsfleet last weekend.

Dixon said: "It was probably as disappointing a performance as Saturday, if not worse. We were nowhere near it and I’ve got big questions to ask about the players now. I had them in afterwards and I told a couple of them what I thought about them.

"The players hadn’t seen that side of me before. It’s not my style. Normally I give everyone a chance to react to criticism and instructions but I can’t be patient any more.

"Everyone’s had a chance and it’s getting really serious now. A few weeks ago I could see a couple of good performances but it’s worrying now. We’re not getting results and we haven’t won at home. That’s alarming, really, for a team of Hythe’s stature.

"I want the players to take responsibility but a couple of them have gone missing, massively. It was very disappointing, all round, and I said afterwards ‘I’m a proud man and I can’t put up with that.’

"I don’t want us going out with a whimper. I’ve lost patience."

Hythe's predicament means fingers will inevitably point at the manager - and Dixon believes some of his players are hiding behind that.

He said: "I’ve told them 'you’ll get me the sack'. If I don’t get a response, I’ll walk. I’ve not fulfilled the board’s criteria, which was to field a decent side to represent Hythe in the right way.

"Ryman League status is vital for the club’s survival. We can’t go down to the Kent League.

"I thought I’d assembled a decent squad and if I was wrong, that was bad judgment on my part and I’ve got to suffer for it.

"If I can’t get a reaction in the next couple of weeks, the inevitable will happen and someone else will have to take over. That’s the way football is.

"It means too much to me to suffer and to have people playing for the sake of it. I need players playing for the whole management team, not just for Tim Dixon, but I’m not getting anything back at the moment."

Hythe are away to South Park on Saturday.