Barking boss Justin Gardner is disappointed with his side’s performance but gave full credit to their opponents Canvey Island on a well-deserved win.

Barking and Dagenham Post: Kemo Darboe is denied by Harry Palmer (pic Terry Gilbert)Kemo Darboe is denied by Harry Palmer (pic Terry Gilbert) (Image: Archant)

The Blues fell to a 3-1 defeat to The Gulls at Mayesbrook Park thanks to goals from Frankie Merrifield, Adam Vyse and former player Martin Tuohy.

Substitute Tobi Joseph did claw one back for the hosts in the 88th minute but it was only a consolation.

“They was more hard-working than us, created more chances, and we probably had a chance to equalise in the last ten minutes and take a draw but as I said to their manager Mark Bentley that would have been spoiling them limelight,” the 38-year-old said.

“A draw or even losing 3-2 wouldn’t have been fair on them, so they full deserved to win, and a lot of managers like to make excuses but the only excuse I can make is that my team didn’t turn up on the day which is very disappointing.”

Gardner feels too many on his key players had poor displays for his side to warrant anything from the match.

“We had too many of our best players playing very poor and probably having their worst games of the season, that’s no excuses that’s facts, but that’s also down to Canvey playing very well.

“I don’t want to take anything away from Canvey because they deserve it and I think you should always give credit where credit is due.

“Especially because not enough people give credit when it’s due, I’m probably one of the few managers that do, as every time we’ve won this season the opposition have probably said we’ve been lucky.

“When we lose I’ve been honest about it to the best of my knowledge.”

The former Aveley boss did however look to take a few positives out of the clash and praised the impact of substitutes Tobi Joseph, Rashid Kamara, and new signing Sahr Kabba.

“You always look to take positives out of any game, win, lose or draw especially when you lose then you want to suck as many positives out as you can.

“For 80 minutes Canvey were the better side by far and we probably played our best football in the last seven to eight minutes.

“The three substitutes that came on done more than the players that were on the pitch, there was a few that did ok, but there were six or seven that were very poor.

“You can probably afford to get away with one or two not at the races but not six or seven.

“If we happened to be on the end of five or six goals against us, we still wouldn’t have been able to grumble.

“But saying that we hit the crossbar, missed a penalty, and missed a one on one.”