Mark Beard has laid into his misfiring Tooting & Mitcham side by demanding they up their workrate or face a season of misery in the Ryman Premier.

Beard saw his Terrors throw away precious points on Tuesday night as they allowed a last-gasp equaliser in the 2-2 home draw with Croydon Athletic.

The result came days after Tooting were dumped out of the FA Trophy 3-1 by Sutton United, and the Terrors boss has seen enough.

Beard said: “It is hard to describe exactly what is going wrong at the moment, but I think it is a combination of things.

“Far too many players are just going through the motions and teams are working harder than us.

“The players seem to think they can just turn it on at any time and win a game without doing the hard work, and that is never the case.”

Tyrone Sealey and a Robert George own goal put Tooting on their way against the Rams, only for it all to go wrong.

And, with Saturday scorer Rob Haworth and Karl Beckford both limping off, Beard admits his hands are rapidly becoming tied.

He added: “We have a certain style of play and when players like Karl go off it makes things very difficult for us.

“Basically we have what we have squad wise as the budget will not allow us to go out and bring any more players in.

“So it is up to the players here to produce.

“I can handle most things but a lack of effort is not one of them.

“The game against Croydon was there for us to win and we did not take that opportunity.

“No we have to go to Concord Rangers and pick ourselves up.

“The league is beginning to take shape and we certainly do not want to be looking up for the rest of the season.”

Tooting & Mitcham’s next three matches: Oct 23 Concord Rangers (a), 26 Folkestone Invicta (a), Nov 6 Aveley (h)