Furious manager Mark Ducket wrote off Eynesbury’s title hopes – after seeing them beaten by the team he expects to lift the crown.

Ducket delivered a scathing assessment of Rovers’ performance in a 3-1 home defeat at the hands of Deeping Rangers on Tuesday night.

It left Eynesbury a dozen points off the pace with the halfway point of the season fast approaching.

“It was a dismal display,” said Ducket. “We were outworked and outplayed and it didn’t look like anyone cared about the performance.

“It was men against boys to be brutally honest. One team – Deeping – played as though their season depended on it. The other – ourselves – thought we just had to show up.

“We lost the ball far too easily and switched off defensively for all three Deeping goals. Mentally we were poor.

“It’s been the story of our season and any thoughts of being in title contention are now gone.

“Deeping were by far the best side we’ve played and they are definitely favourites for the title in my opinion. They will be very hard to beat.

Eynesbury fell behind to a Scott Coupland goal after just 18 seconds. The deficit was doubled by a Dan Schiavi free kick.

A third goal, from Henry Dunn in the opening minute of the second half, all but ended the contest.

Leading scorer Dom Lawless did reply with his 28th goal of the season, but Eynesbury couldn’t mount a comeback.