Wealdstone boss Gordon Bartlett admitted he was embarrassed and claimed his side had shown a lack of heart after their 4-1 home defeat by Bishop’s Stortford on Saturday.

The defeat was only the Stones’ second in 17 league and cup fixtures but Bartlett was left fuming after witnessing his side’s capitulation at the hands of the struggling Bishops, who are fifth bottom of the Conference South. Wealdstone slip a place to 13th.

Speaking through the club’s YouTube channel, he said: “I thought we were awful. We showed a lack of heart.

“You had two teams out there: one fighting for something and one who thought because they had reached 42 points and the sun had come out that the season was over and they were on holiday.”

Bartlett continued: “I thought it was dreadful. The goals were diabolical. I will always praise the side, they have been on a fantastic run. But to finish it like that, I have used the word embarrassing and it was totally unacceptable.

“Their desire was so much better than ours today, they deserved to win, no excuses.”

Stones were behind inside six minutes when George Allen rose highest to power a poorly-defended header into the top corner. And Bartlett’s men never really recovered from that early blow.

The Bishops doubled their lead after 24 minutes; Jefferson Louis disastrously miscuing a clearance from a corner, allowing Mikel Suarez to easily fire past the returning Jonathan North from six yards.

But within a minute Louis was the home fans’ hero again, first winning a penalty and then sending Jonathan Larkins the wrong way from the spot.

The home crowd endured more disappointment in the second period when the buoyant away side’s two-goal cushion was restored only five minutes after the break.

Michael Corcoran clumsily bundled over Ashley Miller and Suarez stroked home the resulting penalty.

But the visitors sealed the points on 82 minutes. With Stones pushing up in numbers, substitute Matt Ball lost out in a stretched midfield and sub Bobby-Joe Taylor broke clear to fire beyond a hopelessly exposed North.

The goals were cheap ones to concede in Bartlett’s view: “The goals we gave away were extremely poor.

“The first one stemmed from a ball on the edge of their box where I thought Luke (O’Nien) reacted badly.

“I am not saying things behind anybody’s back because they have all been told in the dressing room.

“But there were two or three decent chances where the keeper did well on a couple of occasions.”

Wealdstone will look for an improved result and performance when they travel to Havant & Waterlooville on Saturday.