Woking chairman David Taylor says his decision to sack manager Phil Gilchrist was sealed at half-time during the 5-1 home defeat to Kidderminster.
Gilchrist and assistant Neil Lyne leave the club third from bottom in the Blue Square Premier table, three points adrift of safety.
Taylor told BBC Surrey: "The team weren't even sweating [at half time].
"That's not what I want from a club, players who play for Woking will play with pride and give everything."
Taylor went on: "I got my fellow directors together and asked them their opinion, and as a board we made the decision at the end of the game.
"I like Phil as a person, I think the way he came in and said goodbye to the players and everyone at Kingfield proves he is a man of great dignity and we will miss him," he added.
"However we are in the situation we are in, we have six games to go. I have been inundated with questions about my future, the club's future, but quite frankly at the moment we are away at Barrow and all our attention is focussed on that."
Youth coach Graham Baker has been placed in charge of the team for the remainder of the season and it seemed an obvious choice to the club chairman.
"Decision one was Phil went, decision two was we asked Graham to take over," he said.
"We've put Graham in this situation before, he immediately said yes and I think that says a lot about the man."
Taylor confirmed that former manager Geoff Chapple was never likely to take over the managerial reins but helps where he can.
"Geoff is not someone who wants to step on other peoples' toes. I think he's moved on," he said.
"It is good to have a legend around the ground, Geoff spoke to Phil regularly and I think Graham will speak to him regularly as well.
"But the idea of Geoff being involved in a more direct footballing capacity is not something Geoff wants."
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