Bad Lashes: 'We wanted Cheryl Cole'

X Factor rejects Bad Lashes have said that they wanted Cheryl Cole to be their mentor.

The girl group, who became the first act to be voted off the show on Saturday, claimed Louis Walsh didn't know how to handle a girl band.

Emily McNamee told The Sun: "Louis said, 'I know how boybands work. I've done it with Westlife, blah blah blah'. He said he managed Girls Aloud for a bit but wasn't very good.”

She continued: "When we found out we'd got Louis, I was a bit gutted. We all wanted Cheryl because obviously, being in Girls Aloud, she knows what she's talking about. She's done it all.

"She's been in the same position as us with Popstars: The Rivals. She's a woman, she's close to our age, she knows our style. She said she knew what songs she'd have chosen for us. She got us straight away. I think Louis found us a bit harder to get."

However, Walsh rubbished suggestions that he favoured boyband JLS over the female four-piece.

"I love Bad Lashes," he said. "I tried to do something different with them, but even if I'd got them doing 'Riverdance' backwards it wouldn't have helped.

"I don't know why, but girlbands don't do well on the show - look at Hope and The Conway Sisters."