Workington Reds slipped to a third successive defeat when they went down 2-1 at home to Bamber Bridge.
A particularly poor first-half contributed to the loss, a performance manager Mark Fell branded “the worst 45 minutes of any team he has managed.”
It was pretty gruesome watching as Reds looked like a group who had never seen each before, and consequently played like a team of strangers.
Bamber Bridge, without being brilliant, were 2-0 up inside 20 minutes and Reds hardly threatened to make a contest of it.
There was one shout for a penalty when Aran Fitzpatrick went down in the box on an overlapping run but there was no response from the referee.
The fact that there was no further score, and that Workington came back into the contest with a more purposeful second-half performance, saved the contest from being a complete disaster.
But the defeat sent Reds down to 17th in the table with a quarter of the season gone, and only three points above the drop zone.
It wasn’t good to hear, either, that Whitby Town who are due at Borough Park on Saturday, were 6-2 winners at Hebburn.
Manager Mark Fell, who received a red card after the game, will have to re-assess his resources with none of his injured troops expected to be back in the firing line.
He will also have to consider his formation, too, with Reds looking more effective and comfortable with four at the back when Fell made two changes after just 33 minutes.
It also enabled skipper Dav Symington to move out wide, and he looked more like his old self. Indeed it was his goal on 72 minutes which raised hopes of salvaging something from the game.
The opening goal on 12 minutes came after a lovely ball by Olly Molloy inside the last defender put Lucas Weaver in on goal and he fired home.
The second on 20 minutes was supplied by Weaver with a fiercely driven cross which was flicked home by Jeff Adubufour.
Reds, who could hardly string two passes together in the first half, moved the ball about with more purpose in the second-half.
But disappointingly there was no real serious work for goalkeeper Nicholas Michalski to concern himself with.
It was a mistake in front of him which let Symington in and his powerful shot on the run gave the keeper no chance.
His other efforts were well off target and Reds increased corner count couldn’t fashion a goal as the game eventually petered out in the four minutes of added time.
