John Crumplin insists he will not shy away from making the tough decisions after watching his Walton & Hersham side fall to a 1-0 defeat to Hayes & Yeading in their first pre-season friendly on Tuesday night.

The loss saw the Ryman Division One South side perform admirably against their Blue Square Premier hosts only to come up short.

And Crumplin, who played his first team in the opening half before fielding a line-up of trialists after half-time, admitted he had been given plenty of food for thought.

He said: “There were a few players out there that were simply not good enough, and I told three of them not to bother coming back after last night.

“I need to get about 30 players down to a squad of 18 and there will be plenty more casualties to come.

“I will give everybody a chance, but we only have a limited amount of time.”

The decisive strike came at the start of the second half but despite the result Crumplin reckoned it had been a worthwhile exercise.

He added: “I thought for our first game back it was not too bad.

“We had a couple of good chances but we just didn’t take them.

“It was a fair result and I have no complaints about the score whatsoever.

“It showed that we have not sharpened up yet and there is plenty still to be done on the fitness side.

“But there was plenty to work on and that is all you can ask.”