George Borg has described Enfield Town’s pre-season preparations as a "shambles" following Saturday’s 5-2 home defeat by Kingstonian but says his side can "only get stronger".

The Towners were soundly beaten by the ten-man K’s on the opening day of the Ryman Premier League season, with the visitors scoring three second-half goals to swat Enfield aside at the Queen Elizabeth II Stadium.

Reflecting on the loss, Borg said: "They’re one of the teams that are going to be favourites to win the championship.

"I wanted people to know how important it was for us to have home pre-season games and I felt let down by people that those games weren’t allowed to go ahead against Chesham United and Boreham Wood and not to get at least one home pre-season friendly."

The condition of Enfield’s pitch saw home friendly matches against the Generals and the Wood postponed, thanks in part to rugby league side London Skolars’ use of the pitch through the summer.

Said Borg: "Everybody seems to duck away from certain situations and I’m fed up. [We’re] one game in and people don’t realise the circumstances. You get all those negatives around the ground and I don’t really want it; I don’t want to be part of that.

"We’ve had rugby on it and then obviously the people who were supposed to prepare the pitch delayed it for eight days and I’ve had to have games called off and we’ve paid the price for that and I’m very angry," explained Borg.

"You need to play good teams at home so you can highlight the mistakes which young players are going to make and unfortunately Bradley Quinton and I never had the opportunity to do that because we have not played one pre-season game at home.

"When you’re playing against the teams we played, that doesn’t help us - apart from getting injuries - and that’s why I’m very disappointed the preparation was a shambles," added Borg.

The former Braintree boss also highlighted the financial realities of the club: "I’ve got my budget and I’ll stick by my budget and I will bring young players in which I can improve and make better players.

"I’m trying to keep people’s feet on the ground and say: ‘Look, stop whinging and moaning because we’ve lost one game at home, have a look at it, digest it and can you help the club? If you’ve got any spare money, can you bring it into the club?’"

Kingstonian’s Matt Drage was dismissed after eight minutes and five minutes later Enfield took the lead through Corey Whitely, following in after Neil Cousins’ shot was blocked.

The lead lasted just six minutes, with Andre McCollin levelling for the K’s before Elvis Hammond put them ahead on the stroke of half-time.

Town substitute Mark Kirby equalised after the break but Kingstonian then took the game out of the home side’s hands as Stanley Muguo put through his own net before Hammond and Nathaniel Pinney piled on the misery.

Addressing his side’s performance, Borg said: "I’m very disappointed with a few individuals - and they know who they were. I felt they didn’t give their all and they certainly knew where they stood after the game because I won’t accept that.

"We might not be the most talented team in the league but we’ll always give teams a game."

Turning his attention to Tuesday’s clash at Harrow Borough, Borg said: "We can only get stronger and stronger. We’ve got a good, strong bunch of players with a strong mentality who are prepared to work hard and want to learn and I will make sure we get it right."