Carlisle City crashed to a 6-0 home defeat to Northern League title favourites Shildon.
Although City boss Jim Nichols admitted he never saw that coming, he readily suggested that Shildon were the best team he had come across in five years as City manager.
“We were never in the game – at 0-0 or 0-1 – and sometimes you just have to hold your hand-up and say they were a much better side than we were.
“They are title favourites for a reason and dominated the game from start to finish – they were that good.
“But if I’m honest the thing that disappointed me most was the final score. A 3-0 score-line would have been acceptable under the circumstances but I thought we capitulated in the closing stages so that 6-0 was extremely bad on our part.”
Shildon scored three goals in the last 15 minutes when the game was already theirs. Luke Spalding (75) and Andrei Ardelean (85) found the City net before Joe Posthill grabbed his fourth goal in the 90th minute.
Posthill had opened the scoring after seven minutes, added a second in the 22nd minute and completed his hat-trick with a 64th minute penalty.
Nichols added: “We just have to dust ourselves down, train hard this week and be ready to put things right on Saturday.
“It’s a big game for the club at Newcastle Benfield in the FA Vase and comes a fortnight after we won there in the League.
“The thing we have to remember, despite Saturday’s 6-0 defeat, is that we have only lost twice in nine games and are sixth in the League.
“If somebody had offered us that at the start of the season I would have snapped their hand off.”
