Scott Porter slammed Whitstable Town’s performance in their derby defeat to Herne Bay as unacceptable and says he expects better from his side.

Whitstable lost 4-0 at home to Bay who are bottom of the Bostik South East.

Porter’s side’s form has dropped of late and they have now lost their last three league games.

Manager Porter said: “I got let down by the players for the performance they put in and Harry Brown for his discipline. It is not what I expect from my players. It is not acceptable.

“The sending off had a big change on the game. They did have a couple of chances before the red card but it was 0-0 but they scored from the resulting free kick.

“We changed our formation at half-time and had to go for it so there was always the chance of conceding more. A couple more mistakes cost us goals.

“I can only apologise to the supporters as this fixtures means a lot to everyone.”

Whitstable went on a long unbeaten run earlier this season that saw them pushing towards the Bostik South East play-offs.

They have now dropped to 13th and are nine points behind fifth place.

Porter said: “That is three defeats on the trot now and 11 goals conceded. We have to fight our way out of it now.

“I have been in this situation before and got out of it. We went on a good run earlier on this season where we won a lot of games and we do not become a bad team overnight.

“I have got the right boys in the dressing room and we just have to work hard to put it right.”

Whitstable have a tough trip to Guernsey on Saturday in the hope of getting back on track.

Porter added: “We are leaking goals, which we never did last season. We have to stop that but everything seems to be going in at the moment.

“We have to go to Guernsey now to pick up the confidence going into the Christmas period. It will be tough there as we have to go there with 12 or 13 players as we do not have everyone available.”