SWINDON Supermarine’s grip on the Evo-Stik South Premier Division South play-offs slackened at the weekend after they were beaten 2-1 by Gosport Borough.

Following their win against Westbury in the Wiltshire Senior Cup semi-final on Wednesday, Lee Spalding was looking for his side to maintain their positive form after also recording a 1-1 draw against Poole Town last weekend.

But after Conor McDonagh equalised for Marine on the hour mark, the hosts responded and re-established their one-goal lead through Tony Lee.

Marine’s loss – their third this year – drops them 11 points short of the play-off frame with a game in hand.

And manager Spalding admits his side’s first half performance did little to warrant leaving Hampshire with three points.

He said: “To be fair, we never started the game well. They (Gosport Borough) were the better team in the first-half – and we were a couple of yards off the pace.

“We changed a couple of things around at half time, I thought we started the second half well. We got ourselves back into the game by playing some good football.

“We had a couple of opportunities to get ahead, but never took them.

“It was massively disappointing to concede from a corner, and we couldn’t really create anything after that.

“It was a case of scrapping until the end. It’s a disappointing result – parts of our game were good, but our first-half performance didn’t warrant a win.”

Saturday’s loss carries more weight onto next weekend's home tie against Dorchester, who sit three points behind Marine on 37 points.

A win for Steve Thompson’s side wouldn’t be enough for the Dorset outfit to overhaul the Webbswood Stadium outfit, but it could drop Marine to as low as 14th.

Consequently, Spalding has called on his players to channel all of their focus in training onto Saturday’s game and look no further beyond.

“We now must concentrate on our next game, which is key now,” said Spalding.

“We’re at home, and we need a reaction. It’s a game we need to win.

“The league is tight, and Dorchester are not far behind us now, it’s a case of us losing a couple of games and suddenly teams around us winning. If it continues, we could be near the relegation area.

“But, if we win a few, we could be in and around the play-off spot.

“It could go either way, but right now we just need to put all of our efforts into making sure that we are ready for next weekend.”

Elsewhere, Highworth Town were beaten 4-1 at home by title-chasing Yate Town in Division One South.

Darren Jeffries had given the Worthians the lead at half-time, but Yate turned the game around in the second half.

Lewis Leigh-Gilchrist’s hat-trick and a goal for Michael Bryant saw Jeff Roberts’ home side well beaten.