NEAL ARDLEY took responsibility for York City’s ‘lethargic’ 2-0 defeat to Barnet with the Vanarama National League relegation zone lurking on the football club.

A hugely-frustrating afternoon saw a brace from Callum Stead hand Barnet a deserved three points at the Hive, with Ardley’s side failing to really threaten the promotion-hopeful Bees.

Ardley admitted that the performance wasn’t good enough and that it didn’t resemble the work that City had put in pre-match, and took responsibility for a calamitous afternoon for the Minstermen.

“We have got eleven cup finals, and we can’t play the way we did in that first-half,” Ardley admitted.

“As a manager, I take full responsibility, people can give me stick because it is what the job is.

“My job is to get the players to play with energy, but I’ve just said to them in there that I can take the responsibility, but when you turn up and don’t lay a glove on them, then that is disappointing for me.

“We don’t train that way, we don’t play that way and we haven’t played that way for six or seven games.

“That’s disappointing, we never got going and found ourselves 1-0 down to a team that are third in the league, we had to chase the game.

“The first-half particularly we were really disappointed. What we worked on yesterday was not how we set up to play, I thought we were lethargic, we was tepid, we lacked energy and I don’t know where it has come from. We haven’t played that way in a while.

“It’s really disappointing, in the second-half we changed the shape, we were much better and much more front foot, and when you’re chasing a game against a good team then you need to take your chances.

“We had several of them missed, and we needed to stay tight at the back, we forced them into long ball and then didn’t win those headers.

“They are the two disappointing things with the second-half, we’ve missed our chances and then made a mistake.

“In my half-time team talk, I could have taken any one to eleven players off.

“That’s the most disappointing thing, we worked really hard yesterday on how we were going to tackle the game and be brave, almost play with a front three and be aggressive.

“We never got close, we never closed down with any intensity and let them do whatever they wanted with the ball.

“When you let a good team do it, they pick you apart.

“Our quality, even when we gained it in great areas, our decision-making and quality had no zip about us. It was so painful to watch, I’m sure it was for the fans but it was for me as well.

“That’s nothing like how we worked on, they did get a roasting at half-time and they did get a kick up the backside.”

Ardley also confirmed that it was too early to give any information on Ryan Fallowfield’s injury, and commended the supporters after over 500 City fans made the trip into the capital.

“I haven’t spoke to the physio in there, just to the general group. I don’t know what the situation is.

“Amazing, they kept singing all the way through and they kept going.

“We gave them nothing to shout about in the first-half, I would have been angry if I was them in the first-half and would have been disappointed with the result.

“I would have been a lot more happy with how my team went about in the second-half, but you can’t come away from playing third in the league by playing for 45 minutes.

“We’ve ended up losing the game.”