If it's not rock bottom for Valour FC right now, they can certainly see it from here.
And following a 5-nil home loss to Forge FC at Princess Auto Stadium Sundaty in a match delayed by lightning three times, GM and head coach Phillip Dos Santos pulled no punches because there's no value in sugar-coating anything.
"An absolute disaster of a game, if it's me being straightforward," he said. "You can't keep conceding goals where balls are played in behind us from deep areas and us not dealing with them. It's 101 defending and we find ourselves 2-zero down very early with these type of plays. We have to do better and we weren't good enough."
Indeed, from the very outset Valour looked like a team down two men, giving up two goals in the first 15 minutes and then a third just before halftime -- all by Brian Wright -- and the third and final delay just before the one-hour mark only delayed the inevitable, with Forge then adding two more just to further poke at an open wound.
Valour has now conceded a league-high 26 goals -- 14 of those coming in the first half of matches -- and sports a grotesque -17 goal differential.
The win improves the powerhouse Forge FC side to six wins and five draws through their first 11 matches -- a Canadian Premier League record for unbeaten play to start a season. Valour now has two wins and two draws against seven defeats and missed an opportunity to move closer to the playoff line -- although Sunday's effort only fuels further discussion about how to fix things ASAP.
Dos Santos was quick to fall on the sword for his troops in his post-match media availability, but no one escapes being under the microscope on team that has now been out-scored 8-0 in its last two games and repeatedly gift-wraps chances that are turned into goals.
"It starts on me," he said. "If there's a player or two or three or 10 that don't understand, at the end of the day I have to take responsibility. I have to make sure they understand or we'll be on a treadmill for 17 games we still have to play. I still have to work with the team and make sure we deal with these situations better.
"... We have to stop fantasizing here. We have to understand that the truth is 26 goals (allowed) in 11 games. It's an absolute disaster when you think about it because it means you have to score about three goals a game to try and win a match. It's not sustainable. It's not real. I go again -- it starts with me having to do my job, showing up every day and trying to make sure that we work the team well and pass the right message and then it trickles down to the guys responding and also doing their job.
"Today we didn't do that. Today we didn't do our job. We weren't good enough. It's been a few games now... you look at conceding five in Ottawa, last week conceding a bunch. Enough is enough. It's not good enough and we need to have the humility to realize it and understand it."
Asked if his hammer now going forward is minutes and playing time -- the idea that no spots are guaranteed in his starting XI -- Dos Santos offered this candid take:
"The hammer is very easy -- and this works for everyone. If we don't do our job in the CPL we can't think there's going to be 500 contracts on the table waiting for our future. That's the hammer and if a player doesn't understand that and needs me to hit it with the hammer... me, in my position, I fully understand that. I don't live in la-la land. I fully understand we have a job to do. We have to stop stopping in the middle of the game to blame referees and blame this and blame circumstances.
"We have to go out and do our job and stop being kids here and living in fantasy land. This is the truth of football -- if you don't do your job none of us, including myself, are in the position where we can think this is eternal. Football is a very volatile business. Things change very fast and we have to live in the real world."
There's no sense, truthfully, diving into any specific details about Sunday's performance -- played before an announced crowd of 3,323 at Princess Auto Stadium but featuring just a few diehards at the end that Dos Santos saluted for their dedication.
The real test now is to see how Valour responds in the week ahead before a Canada Day match in Halifax against the Wanderers.
"This is going to show character," said captain Raphael Ohin. "I've seen it all before.
"It's still early in the season; there stil lots of games to play. We can still turn things around. We can be there all day and feel sorry for ourselves or you can just decide to go out there and fight and turn it around.
"We have to turn it around. Nobody is going to do it for us."
‘V’ NOTES:
-Valour was without Themi Antonoglou and Shaan Hundal due to injury while Frankie Facchineri was serving a suspension.
Valour FC 0 Forge FC 5
Goals
Forge FC
8′: Brian Wright (assist: Dan Nimick)
14': Brian Wright (assist: Dan Nimick
44': Brian Wright (penalty)
69': Nana Ampomah
77': Valour own goal
Valour FC
None