Players who fail to perform could be shown the door at Oxford City, according to boss Mike Ford.

Ford was disappointed with the manner of his side’s 3-0 defeat to Dover Athletic, as they missed out on making the first round for the second time in three seasons.

The manager said he may look to move on players he deems not good enough.

“I’ve got a big squad and clearly I’m carrying too many players,” said Ford. “So there might be a few decisions on players this week.

“We need to be challenging every week to win.

Every game we play I need first-team players on the bench, not subs.

“I don’t need subs in the team.”

But Ford reserved praise for new signing Michael Pook, who came off the bench to make his debut, and hinted at further changes to come.

He added: “He looked to me like he’s better than what I’ve already got. And if that’s the case, there will be one or two disappointed faces next week.

“As a football club, if we want to progress and move on we need to change what we do.

“We can’t smash the ball from back to front the whole time because we’ll never control the game and I need better footballers on the pitch.”