Manager John Coleman called Gillingham’s performance in the 3-0 defeat at Barrow “an absolute disgrace” as their winless league run extended to nine games.
Kian Spence bagged a brace, including a stunning opener, for Barrow before substitute Tyler Smith completed the scoring in stoppage time.
Coleman said: “First of all, I’d like to apologise to the fans.
“If I’ve travelled for six hours and paid my hard-earned money, and I’ve been working for all week, to see a team just boot the ball with no idea, no passion, no fight, no drive, no desire I would be absolutely livid.
“I’m livid myself, I’m livid for the lack of responsibility we showed to the fans. I think it’s been an absolute disgrace today.
“We had no idea how to pass the ball, we just booted it up to Joe (Gbode) and hope he fights and wrestles for it.
“I’ve been managing 25 years and I’ve got to say that is up there as one of the worst performances I’ve seen from any of my teams with a lack of fight and a lack of desire and conceding easily-avoidable goals.
“The players are treated too well in my opinion. They’re too soft, too closeted – and I have to take full responsibility for that.
“I put the team out on to the pitch. I pick the team and that’s something I should be ashamed of. When you turn in performances like that, it makes me sick, makes me want to vomit, to be honest.
“It’s gloves off now. There’ll be a lot of sanctions and a lot of soul-searching to be done.”
While Coleman vowed to cancel his players’ days off in the wake of their defeat, Barrow boss Andy Whing was delighted with their victory and two-goal Spence.
He said: “I had a bit of a chat with Kian yesterday because he scored nine goals last season and he’d only scored one this year.
“So I’m taking an assist for that one. I just thought he’s been trying to chase what he did last year. I think he scored some fantastic goals last year and maybe trying to whack the ball too hard.
“Kian was outstanding in terms of his work rate today. When you work that hard, sometimes you get your rewards.
“He certainly did today. The first goal was outstanding and obviously the second goal was a little bit different, more of a tap-in wasn’t it, but he did really well to control it.
“Both teams are pretty fragile at the minute in terms of confidence. I don’t think Gillingham created anything really apart from set-pieces and long throws and we were mindful of that.
“I think the first goal is always important, I don’t think we’ve lost a game this season when we’ve scored first, so that’s always important, especially for us, especially here.
“It seems to give us confidence and I thought we were more aggressive and played at a good tempo. We were really good. Well worthy of a 3-0 win and it was comfortable in the end.”
