Player/assistant boss Erkan Okay admitted Soham Town Rangers got exactly what they deserved when suffering derby defeat last Saturday.

The Greens slumped to a 3-1 home reverse at the hands of local rivals Mildenhall Town in a Bostik North Division clash with attracted a crowd of 206 to Julius Martin Lane.

Tom Debenham put the visitors ahead after a quarter-of-an-hour and the Rangers defence allowed Abouhadje Kouassi far too much time and space to double the lead six minutes into the second period.

Jack Mochalski halved Soham’s arrears just after the hour when tapping in a fine pass across the box from Callum Russell and only the woodwork denied them a level when Joe Carden steered a classy volley against the bar.

But their hopes of clawing their way back into the contest were dashed when Kouassi roared clear down the right and delivered for Mildenhall substitute John Sands to tuck away their clincher and send Soham back to the bottom of the standings.

A miserable afternoon was compounded by the dismissal of defender Lloyd Groves late on following a flare-up in which Mildenhall player Panayiotis Boxer also saw red.

Okay admitted: “It was a poor performance and a poor result.

“We thought we had turned the corner, but we were disappointingly flat and Mildenhall definitely deserved to win on the day.

“We got the goal to get ourselves back into the game and then hit the bar, but the third Mildenhall goal then deflated us.

“We have a very good squad of players on paper, but it’s just not happening on the pitch and changes will be made. We’re going to look at shuffling the pack this weekend.

“The longer we’re struggling at the bottom of the table, the more difficult it will be to get of this situation.

“It’s not a position we expected to be in after finishing last season so well and managing to keep the squad together.

“It’s clear that something is not right. We have to look at the management and playing squad collectively, and we have to ensure we stick together.”

Rangers travel to mid-table side Brentwood Town this Saturday with midfielder Ally Conway and frontman Marcus Hall both in contention for starts.

Soham are hopeful veteran defender Lee Chaffey will recover from recent appendix surgery in time to play.