Jay Saunders pulled no punches after Tonbridge lost their unbeaten home record in National League South.

Angels, looking to close in on the play-offs places, lost 3-1 at home to bottom side Enfield Town on Tuesday night.

The Towners hadn’t won for two months and on Saturday were humbled 4-2 at Isthmian South East Sittingbourne in the FA Trophy.

But they punished a disappointing Tonbridge performance with Jake Hutchinson’s first-half double and a late clincher from Sam Youngs after Jamie Fielding replied.

Boss Saunders felt his side were complacent given Enfield’s poor form - and they paid the price.

“It’s just not good enough,” said Saunders.

“You have to do the basics in football at any level, and that’s win your individual duels.

“I think some of them went out with the mentality that, playing bottom of the league, it was going to be easy.

“Obviously we were unbeaten at home and I think some of them just went through the motions for the first half-hour and gave two goals to them.

“You’ve got to give Enfield some credit, I thought they overran us in midfield.

“I’m really disappointed. I apologised to the supporters because large parts of that weren't good enough.”

Saunders had watched Enfield’s Trophy exit at Sittingbourne as part of preparations for the game.

Report: Tonbridge 1-3 Enfield

But everything he said went out the window as Enfield moved off the foot of the table.

“I’ve watched five or six of their games,” said Saunders.

“I made the boys fully aware of where we think we can win the game but when they cross that white line people have to do their job and do the basics.

“We didn’t win enough duels.

“When you’re playing teams at the bottom who are fighting for their lives, you’ve got to do the ugly side.

“If I went through it, we haven’t won enough first and second balls.

“You’ve got to earn the right and we haven’t earned the right.

“In general we’re quite good here but I just felt too many were miles off it.

“Probably only two or three came out with any credit. The rest of them were so far off it, it was ridiculous.

“For our standards, I don’t think that was anywhere near where we should be.

“It was an opportunity to close the gap on the play-offs with one of our games in hand and we’ve missed an opportunity.

“You don’t like losing games, home or away, but that performance, it’s hurt and it’s one of them where we know we have to pick the boys up.”

Tonbridge host another struggling side this Saturday (3pm) when Aveley visit Longmead.

There could be changes for that game, while they’re at home again next Tuesday (7.45pm) against Chesham.

Saunders said: “I’ve just been really blunt with them in there. They know. Players aren’t silly.

“They came off at the end, we got stick off the supporters and rightly so because it wasn’t good enough. They know we need a big response.

“I always say to the boys, when you’ve got the shirt, don’t give me a reason to drop you, and I don’t think enough over the last three or four games are doing enough to keep their shirts.

“That’s given me a headache but it’s something we’ve got to get right and get it right for Saturday.

“For me, this hurts more than Harborough (4-1 FA Cup first-round defeat).

“You see it in one-off cup games, you lose games.

“Don’t get me wrong, I’m not saying I was happy with that performance because obviously I wasn’t.

“But this is a league game against the team bottom of the league and we didn’t want to lose our unbeaten record.

“This has hurt a lot. It’s not good enough.

“The boys are capable of bouncing back, we know that, we’ve not become a bad team overnight, and if we can win on Saturday then we move on.”

Having been caught out against Enfield, although they should have had a penalty at 2-1 down, Tonbridge can’t take Aveley lightly.

It’s a point Saunders will force home at training.

“There are no easy games in this league,” he said.

“When you look in the leagues below, you kind of go, ‘This game’s a guaranteed three points’ but I don’t think there is that in this league because everyone’s got good individuals who can hurt you.

“You have to give Enfield credit, they came here, they worked their socks off, and when they had their chances they took them.

“We probably had more possession but if you’re not going to do anything with it, it doesn’t mean a lot.

“If you give teams two goals, you give them an opportunity to put bodies behind the ball.

“If you’re 1-0 up or it stays 0-0 then they’ve got to come out a bit.

“But once you come away from home and get 2-0 up, fair play to them, put people behind the ball, make it hard for you and then there’s always that chance right at the end that they nick another one.”