BOURNEMOUTH Poppies caretaker manager Kenny Vaughan has broken the club's silence to launch a broadside at its previous regime.

Vaughan, whose predecessor James Wood quit in the summer along with virtually the entire playing staff, has taken on the task of rebuilding the stricken club after the most turbulent period in its long history.

And Vaughan, who takes his new-look outfit to Southern League Didcot Town in the FA Cup preliminary round tomorrow (3pm), has blasted some of Wood's former squad for demanding "crazy money" to stay on during the turmoil.

Vaughan told the Echo: "The club has been around for 130-odd years so we certainly weren't going to collapse because the manager walked out and left us with nothing.

"But James has his own reasons for that and that's not a grudge to bear. We didn't really look at it all as a mass exodus, which is what the Echo used to describe it. For us it was more like a mass clear-out because we were expecting it to come.

"Without mentioning names, there were a lot of people still at the club festering and dragging it down even more - basically taking the mickey out of the situation and enjoying it.

"There were players asking us for crazy money to stay and we were laughing and saying, No, I don't think you understand. We are a non-paying club from here on in'.

"So we thought, Right, the whole lot can go and we'll start again'."

Vaughan's young squad, many from the club's former reserve team, have been handed a baptism of fire turning out in the Sydenhams Wessex League top-flight - crashing to 6-0 and 8-0 defeats against VT FC and Poole Town respectively.

And the level-headed caretaker boss insists the on-going campaign is now simply about survival.

He said: "We had two goals at the start of the season - the first one being to get a team out and the second one to survive. That's what we are trying to do and we've achieved 50 per cent of that already by getting a team out."

Previewing tomorrow's cup tie, Vaughan added: "We won't go there thinking we are going to get another battering - we'll go there and try and if we do get another battering then we'll learn from it.

"It's embarrassing because we've got players in and they don't know each other's names.

"It was nearly a case of the chairman getting his boots out! We may have to get this season out of the way, but there's no doubt in my mind that we'll be back and up and running next season."

Gary Langrish faces a late fitness test ahead of tomorrow's tie, while James Baker and Chris Toy return to the squad. Stuart Langrish misses out.

Poppies: (from) Vaughan, Jones, M Toy, Byrne, Cole, Geary, King, Neville, Jack, Hancock, Webb, McGlynn, Saadi, Wrixton, Barnett, Barbour, C Toy, Baker, G Langrish.