Kevin Keehan revealed he had spoken to Stefan Cox about his attitude after Lewes’ 3-2 defeat at home to Northwich which left them bottom of Blue Square premier.

Cox was dropped to the bench for the bottom of the table clash and failed to come on despite the Rooks turning in one of their worst performances of the season.

Keehan was not been impressed with the player in the pre-match warm-up and hinted afterwards the player may be sent out on loan.

He said: “We were disappointed with his attitude today, particularly in the warm-up. I have had a long chat with him. He has great potential but there has got to be an end product. He has played the last three games and not got a ball in the box.”

Asked if Cox was about to leave the club, Keehan said: “I am talking to him. There is nothing final. Like one or two we are probably better off getting them out on loan.

“Stefan has great ability, good feet and tremendous pace and fans can get excited about him because he can run past people like they are not there but you have have to get the ball in the box if you want to score goals.

“I can understand he was disappointed he wasn’t starting but I just can’t get to grips with the lack of enthusiasm.”

Keehan was disappointed with the performance and the defeat.

He said: “It didn’t start great for us and didn’t get a lot better. They out-fought us and we ended up playing too many balls to their strengths. They were winning most of the balls in the air and we stopped passing it.

“In the first half we had a few players who were panicking on the ball and just hooking it on. We didn’t get going. Having said that I still thought we could have got something out of the game.”