FARNHAM Royal skipper Ollie Clayson said his side have no hiding place after an 'awful' display at Reading on Saturday.

Royals were beaten by six wickets at Sonning Lane to put their position in the Home Counties League under serious threat.

"It was one of those woeful games you have in a season," lamented Clayson, "We just never turned up." "It's a bit embarrassing really, we've got no excuses.

"We weren't bowled out by a particularly good Reading player who took six wickets, they just helped themselves to our batsmen.

"A good target on that wicket would've been 150, but the way it happened the momentum was with Reading." Farnham were in trouble at 14-2 before Christopher Esh (13) and George Thurstance (20) produced a third-wicket stand of 37.

However, after Simon Andersson (4-26) had the duo dismissed only two other batsmen reached double figures in a total of 107.

Thurstance (2-39) and Muhammed Abid (1-21) made early inroads in defence of the meagre target, but they were staring down the barrel when Amardeep Dosanjh (46) and Andrew Rishton (36) added 67 for the third wicket.

Both were dismissed late on, but the result was confirmed when Reading sealed victory with five penalty runs after a loose ball struck the wicketkeeper's helmet.

"Thank god Falkland against Cove was abandoned and they only got six points each," said a relieved Clayson, "Had one of those won it would've been even more daunting.

"But if that's not a kick up the backside I don't know what is." Farnham, now just three points above the Division Two West relegation zone, will be desperate to break their winless run at home to bottom side Falkland this Saturday (11.30am start).

Clayson added: "We've got decent players that are just not performing. We've talked about it but there's only so many cliches you can come up with. At the end of the day we all need to perform better." **PICK up a copy of the Observer, out now, for all the latest sports news and action** **FOLLOW the Observer on Twitter @Observer_sports**