Forest Green Rovers’ head coach Troy Deeney said there were “too many babies” in his side after defeat to Harrogate – their next game is at Gillingham this Saturday

Gillingham play bottom-placed Forest Green Rovers this Saturday and a head coach who has come under fire for berating his own players.

Forest Green appointed former Watford striker Troy Deeney as their permanent head coach last month, having already been at the club as a player, but he’s yet to win a game. He blasted his own players after their 2-0 loss against Harrogate last Saturday.

Deeney singled out a few players for public criticism and said there were “too many babies” in his team. He has since apologised for his criticism having said that “every now and again my emotions get the better of me.”

Deeney’s first game as head coach was against the Gills just before Christmas, in a game that ended goalless. Since then his team have picked up just two points from their last five fixtures. Last night’s game against Mansfield Town was postponed because of a frozen pitch.

The Harrogate result left him reeling, saying: “The first half was boring and I would have preferred to watch Antiques Roadshow - no offence to anyone who likes Antiques Roadshow.

“The amount of nonsense you have to deal with at this place from players is embarrassing.

“What is going to have to happen is the sledgehammers are going to have to come out. There are going to be a lot of people that won’t like it but I do not care.

"My job is to try and save this football club in the short term, but also to put it in a better place moving forward and at the moment there are too many babies and that is not just young players, there are too many babies from top to bottom."

Deeney also singled out criticism for midfielder Reece Brown, who was left out of the squad for not turning up on time, saying: “If you were an employer and you had someone turn up late twice