Lincoln place Simpson on 'gardening leave' following poor results. Photo: Paul Battison

After Lincoln City’s humiliating 4-0 defeat to North Ferriby United in the FA Trophy, Gary Simpson gave a frank assessment of his team and their performance.

He said, “Poor. We were unbelievably poor. I can only apologise to the supporters. It’s the worst performance since I’ve been here.”

Simpson then spoke about the about Lincoln’s recent form and how out of the ordinary the performance was.

He said, “I didn’t see it coming. We were only commenting how bright they looked in training yesterday. We were out fought; we look at the individual battles. It wasn’t good enough.”

The Imps boss did credit the lower league opposition saying, “To be honest, they deserved it. They worked hard, harder than us.”

Simpson finished by saying he was embarrassed and he would like to apologise to the supporters.

Being at the game on Saturday, the fans reaction during and after the game demonstrated that this was the match they felt most embarrassed about.

Adam McBrien and Andy Pearson made their feelings clear to @Lincsport tweeting, “It’s a disgrace” and “shoddy sums it up” respectively.

Couple those opinions with the surround sound booing at the final whistle, the Lincoln players will need to bring their A-game when they take on Braintree next weekend.