A TORRID campaign ended in long-feared relegation for Waltham Forest last weekend.
The Stags lost 2-1 to Harlow Town last Saturday, a result which fatally wounded dim prospects for survival in Ryman One North.
Two days later, fatigued Forest sunk to a 5-0 drubbing by Wingate & Finchley, who grabbed the last play-off spot.
Now, with just Maldon & Tiptree left to play this season, Forest have managed to win just five games all year.
But despite that dreadful record, boss Wali Ojalabi refused to blame the players for relegation.
“I’m not too harsh on the players because I did not have that much time to instil my style in them,” he told Guardian Series Sport.
“You can tell we are not a team who have been together all season. It shows.
“It’s been hard with the injuries and suspensions. That really killed me because I could not field the same side for two games in a row,” he insisted, grasping for positives.
“Against Harlow we were the better side. Looking at both sides on the pitch you would not put us at the bottom of the table.
“The Wingate game was a match too far for us. They just kept passing to their best player and letting him get on with it.”
The Stags could have used such a figure this season, rued the manager.
Forest will begin next season in the Essex Senior League.
There is also no chance of playing at Wadham Lodge, the club’s spiritual home.
With continuing uncertainty at the club, the risk must still be there for a season of debilitating chaos from August.
Ojalabi admitted he has yet to meet chairman Isaac Johnson in the light of last weekend’s relegation.
“The chairman and me will have to sit down and talk. I have to see the blueprint first, but hopefully things go the way we want at last,” he said.
“The problem is that bad things have happened all the time, right from the start of the season.”
A new experience awaits the Stags in the Essex Senior League, one which is also alien to Ojalabi.
But he expressed confidence that Forest can bounce back fast from a season-long nightmare.
“If I get the right players then we are coming straight back,” he insisted.
Elsewhere in Ryman One North, Waltham Abbey failed to win either of their two Easter Bank Holiday games.
A 2-2 home draw with Potters Bar Town on Monday preceded a 4-2 defeat to promotion-chasing Needham Market two days previously.
Next up for Paul Wickenden’s side is the final game of the season, away at 16th-placed Redbridge this weekend.
The Abbotts will want to sign off with a bang and can yet finish tenth.
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