DELROY Facey delivered a frank verdict on Lincoln City's failings today as he insisted youth was no excuse for their disappointing start to the season.

As anxiety continues to grow amid a lacklustre beginning to the campaign, the much-travelled striker confessed his frustration following a series of inconsistent performances.

Lincoln have won just one of their opening seven league and cup games and were beaten 2-1 at Chesterfield on Saturday which left them treading water in the bottom half of League Two.

Some fans have claimed inexperience is to blame for the mistakes, but Facey believes that under-achieving City cannot be allowed to use youth as camouflage for their failings.

"Just because we have a relatively young team, that is no excuse," said the 30-year-old.

"In my eyes, if you are good enough, then you are old enough. It's not as if we do not have experienced professionals in the team.

"Not one of the players in the team at the weekend was making his debut, either.

"Everybody had first-team games under their belts and it should not make a difference if you are 17 or 31 with 1,000 league games on your record.

"You simply have to stand up and be counted and the fact is when we cross that white line, we are all men."

Facey's assessment comes after Chris Sutton admitted he was growing tired of the sob stories that have surrounded their results so far.

During a sombre post-match press conference last week, the former Premier League title winner conceded there were too many below-par performances from his players.

And in a thinly-veiled dig at their character, he insisted he would happily take a team of "11 Ian Pearces", referring to the club's assistant manager.

With an important home game against Barnet this weekend, the first in a series of fixtures that Sutton confessed his side had a good chance of winning, Facey believes the players have to show resolve.

"Nothing much was said after the game on Saturday, because everyone knew it was not good enough and we have to rectify the mistakes," he said.

"It cannot keep happening and we now have a good week of training ahead of us and as a team we know where we went wrong.

"But sometimes you have to show a bit of steel and character and it does not matter if you are a young boy, you have to open your mouth.

"Everybody has to do their part. It's not a chance to disrespect somebody, it's a chance to tell somebody if they are not doing something right.