NICK Stanley endured a nightmare three minutes as Supermarine were thrashed 4-0 by Southern Premier leaders Brackley.

With Marine 2-0 down at St James Park courtesy of a Brett Solkhon header and a Glenn Walker strike, Stanley saw his 27th-minute penalty blocked by Billy Turley and his follow-up volley hit the bar.

Moments later, Stanley was adjudged to have handled in the area and Elliot Sandy duly converted past Grant Porter.

Brackley made absolutely sure they took all three points eight minutes into the second period, as Marvin Robinson nodded home.

Salt was rubbed into the visitors’ wounds when Turley repelled a second spot kick late on, this time from Ash Edenborough.

The result meant Supermarine slipped back into the relegation places and are now two points fromsafety with two games to go.

Marine joint boss Gary Horgan sympathised with Stanley and said the team as a whole should shoulder the blame for the result, for a substandard opening to the game.

On the missed spot kick, Horgan said: “The ball came back out and Snakes (Stanley) probably could have had a touch and then finished it off, but he took on the volley which was more difficult, and it hit the bar.

“For the penalty (at the other end) he was adamant it didn’t hit his hand. The linesman flagged and I don’t see how the referee could have seen it, so it seemed like he probably guessed.

He added: “We were disappointed in the way we started the game, we didn’t start that great and that set the tone for how we played in the first half.

“We allowed them to put pressure on us and it gave them a lift and made us nervy. We had a penalty to get it back to 2-1 and if we had got that it could have been what we were looking for. It could have swung the game for us.

“But from looking at 2-1 we went in 3-0 down and while that wasn’t the final nail in the coffin, it gave us a mountain to climb at half time.”

Elsewhere, Chippenham’s woeful run of form continued as they lost 2-1 at home to Stourbridge, in spite of a goal from Alan Griffin.

Relegated Cirencester were beaten 2-0 at the Corinium by a revitalised St Albans outfit.