MALMESBURY Victoria boss Simon Winstone wants his side to stand up and be counted after their disappointing start to the season.

The Vics have yet to pick up a point from their opening seven games in the Hellenic League Division One West and their latest defeat came last weekend as they suffered a heavy defeat to local rivals Cricklade Town.

Winstone was disappointed with the lack of desire shown by his team and said: “We went ahead but to be honest, we never really got going and Cricklade wanted the game a lot more than us.

“We’re seven games in to the season now and the players should be performing week in week out, not just once every three weeks.

“I think that there’s been a lack of work-rate and a lack of desire and we should all, myself included, be standing up and being counted in games.

“We’ve got good players at the football club and they all know how I feel. It’s not acceptable at the moment and we need to sort it out.

“I want to see a massive improvement in the desire to win tackles, work together for the team and win matches because it’s very tough at this level.”

Malmesbury took the lead 10 minutes in at the Flying Monk Ground when Max Sparrow fired a free-kick past Cricklade keeper Devon Brown.

But just six minutes later, Dean Hughes headed home the equaliser for the visitors before Gareth Davies bundled Cricklade into the lead in the second period.

FOR MORE FOOTBALL NEWS, REPORTS & PICTURES SEE THURSDAY'S GAZETTE & HERALD AND FOLLOW US ON TWITTER @gazsport

On the hour mark, Adam O’Bree’s strike made it 3-1 before Hughes headed his second of the afternoon to see off the Vics with ten minutes to go.

Winstone’s men travel to Hook Norton this weekend but will be without the unavailable Jon Smith.