Welwyn Garden City manager Nick Ironton blasted his side despite a 2-1 win over Colney Heath - branding the entire performance as "dreadful".

Bailey Stevenson had fired the Magpies into a fifth-minute lead and the basement club in the Southern League Division One Central, playing for the first time under new manager Ant Burns, were good value for that advantage.

In the end they were undone in two minutes, George Ironton equalising on 80 minutes and Matty Campbell-Mhlope bagging the winner moments later.

But while he will gladly take the three points, the get out of jail victory was nothing to be happy about according to a scathing manager.

Ironton said: "Firstly, credit must go to Colney Heath. A young side, they worked their socks off for new management and definitely deserved something from the game.

"And get out of jail? Crumbs, you are joking. Get out of jail? We were dreadful.

"I was pretty embarrassed, especially in the first half, and we only got out of jail because of two bits of skill, one from George and one from Matty Campbell.

"They got us the points that we didn’t deserve and I’ve let them know that in there.

"That performance isn’t acceptable, from one to 11 we were poor all over the park.

"That’s not my team. We weren’t focused, there was no discipline, no cohesion, no crossing, didn’t look like scoring, inept up front – I can’t say anything more.

"It was just one of those performances. Dreadful."

City did have much more of the ball across the 90 minutes but despite a full-throttle second-half, it was getting to the stage where a goal seemed highly unlikely

"We were laboured on the ball and we thought we could pass it through them," said Ironton.

"To be fair they worked extremely hard and I thought they’d tire, but they didn’t.

"I only wanted to play George for an hour but I had no choice but to keep him on.

"A good bit of skill got us the equaliser and then he found Matty, which again was a great finish.

"Two bits of skill from us in the 90 minutes has changed the game but we didn’t play in the right areas, we lost the ball and that’s the worst I’ve seen our defence play.

"We looked very vulnerable with balls into the box and if we play anything like that on Saturday, we will get tanked."

Saturday's game is back at Herns Lane but in the FA Trophy, with Isthmian League Premier Division Carshalton Athletic the visitors.

And they will arrive brimming with confidence , having won 6-1 and 5-0 in their last two games, the latter ending Folkestone Invicta's 12-game unbeaten start to the season.

The WGC boss said: "We have to go back to the drawing board and put it down to one of those games.

"I know they upped their game because they have a new manager but I was pretty embarrassed with that first half, pretty embarrassed."