A forlorn Ant Burns called out his Colney Heath players after a "lack of character" in the second half at Harlow Town resulted in another nail being driven into their Southern League coffin.

The 3-0 loss was the Magpies' 22nd of the season and leaves them rock bottom of Division One Central with just 12 games left to play.

But despite trailing to a third-minute goal, the relegation favourites were the better side for the remainder of the first-half and should arguably have been level.

What followed though was not pretty for the boss.

Burns said: "You can’t start a game like that at this level, especially with the resources we’ve got.

"It’s then very difficult to get back into the game away from home.

"Give the lads some credit though. We manufactured a few chances and asked a few questions of them in the first half.

"We kept it positive in the first half, we were still in the game, but the biggest concern from the performance was the lack of character in the second half.

"We just didn’t come out at all. We didn’t look like a team that wanted to put them under pressure.

"Within 10 minutes we were 2-0 down and they controlled the rest of the half.

"It was a really disappointing second half.

"I really expected us to kick on and we didn’t.

"We’ve got a young, young side and it showed a bit at times. There was a bit of naivety.

"That’s the challenge we’ve got against these more experienced sides and ones with bigger budgets.

"We have to punch well above our weight."

Injuries didn't help with six changes from the 11 they started at Hertford Town on Saturday, a 3-2 loss with the winner coming with two minutes to go.

More injuries followed at the Harlow Arena and it leaves Burns and his team down to the bare bones.

That may mean chances though for the club's youngsters in the reserve team.

He said: "We’ll see what we’ve got player-wise ahead of Aylesbury United at home on Saturday.

"We might have to bring some other players in if we can but it is going to be difficult.

"We’ve brought in a few of the reserves and they all had some involvement and it might be that we have to bring in more.

"We’ve got one [new player] coming in at the end of the week hopefully, that’s a positive, and George Devine and Matty Walsh getting another chunk of minutes, there’s more positives.

"But on the whole it is a disappointing evening for us."