Former Social Club Bluebird Fred (Pinks) Lewis has blamed his club's humiliating 20-0 thrashing at the expense of Somerset Trojans on a lack of dedication and commitment on the part of players.

In the aftermath of Sunday's massacre at Bernard Park, Lewis said he wasn't at all shocked to learn of the result, given the failure of the team's players to commit themselves to training or any pre-season activity.

"They figure they can just come out and play every Sunday without putting in any effort," he said yesterday.

"And if you aren't in any good shape then you're supposed to take licks. Basically it's just a lack of preparation on the players' behalf."

Lewis, who represented Bermuda at the national level, hopes the embarrassing experience will serve as a wake-up call for the perennial First Division whipping boys.

"You have to go down in order to come back up," he said.

Social Club have been anchored in the lower division for over 30 years now, a far cry from the team which won three successive league and FA Cup titles in the 1960s.

"It all depends on the players' dedication. No team can be on top if they aren't prepared to put in the necessary commitment," said Lewis. "Over the years we have had difficulties putting a team together and we have also lost a few good players. What else can you do when that happens?"

Lewis said the Angle Street club were also faced with another problem ? players wanting to be paid for their services "under the rug".

"When we went down we refused to do what some of the other clubs were doing. They began paying players but we refuse to pay anybody who wants to come and play football for us," he said. "We may be willing to help a youngster out who wants to attend school or something like that, but to pay a player every week just to play is certainly out of the question."

Lewis said this was the reason today why so many players opted to jump ship whenever the chips were down.

"Everyone today is looking for glory," he said. "There's just no commitment around today. That's how these players are . . . they just want to join a new club because they won a trophy the previous season. That's why football on the whole today is a bunch of rubbish!"

However, Lewis, whose son Troy scored an own goal during Sunday's lopsided defeat, insists Social Club won't disband.

Meanwhile, after watching Social Club pick the ball out of the net on 20 occasions, one might have figured Somerset Trojans' coach Dennis Brown would be a contented man.

But the coach who led Trojans to countless cup and league victories during his career reckons there's still room for improvement.

"The only thing that I told my players before the match was that I wanted to see an improvement in their overall play," he said yesterday.

"We may have scored 20 goals but we still failed to capitalise on many chances.

But as you know things take time to gel and that was only one victory."

With one objective having been met, Brown said it was now time to put that result behind them and stay focused on the challenges which lay ahead.

Trojans take on St.George's this Sunday at Wellington Oval where the coach anticipates more of a challenge.

"The First Division is always competitive. When I was coaching down at Wolves, I always dwelled on the technical side of the game," he said.

"But it is also very physical in the First Division. So there are a lot of dogfights and if you don't know how to scrap then you are going to find yourself staying down."

Bermuda Football Association could not confirm yesterday whether or not Trojans' mammoth win was a record.