ANGRY AFC Totton boss Steve Hollick slated his side’s inept performance as “verging on the embarrassing” following yesterday's spiritless 5-1 humbling at home to Swindon Supermarine.

With nothing but pride to play for, the mid-table Stags threw open the Testwood Stadium doors for a ‘kids go free' day in the hope of inspiring the future generation of fans.

Instead, they sent a 400-strong crowd home thoroughly deflated, meekly rolling over against play-off bound Supermarine despite being handed a 12th-minute lead.

When Swindon’s Ross Adams unwittingly headed into his own net amid the melee that greeted Nick Watts’ inswinging corner, it was no more than the Stags deserved for a bright start to the Southern One South & West showdown.

But Connor Thompson casually volleyed the visitors back on terms after 25 minutes, and, having had a Josh Parsons effort ruled out for offside in the third minute of added time, Supermarine dominated after the break and Sam Morris and sub Connor Waldon quickly put clear daylight between the sides.

With 20 minutes remaining Swindon grabbed a fourth as Parsons squeezed the ball past Stags keeper Steve Mowthorpe at his near post and Thompson completed the rout with a late fifth, beating Mowthorpe at the second attempt.

It was the sixth straight defeat in an increasingly miserable end to the season for Totton who now have two games remaining to prove to Hollick that they possess the hunger to succeed next season.

The Stags play their last home match against Wimborne Town on Tuesday (7.45pm) and travel to Mangotsfield for the season’s finale on Saturday.

Making no attempt to disguise his disgust with yesterday's lack-lustre performance, Hollick said: “It was so disappointing, it was verging on the embarrassing. We had a good crowd in for a ‘kids go free day’ and badly let ourselves down. We lacked any sort of urgency or desire to win.

“We want to try and keep this group together because we’ve got some good footballers, but they need to match that with workrate and desire. If we don’t see that and we have change things in pre-season, then that’s what we’ll do.

“I’d like to think it (yesterday's performance) was because the season has petered out, but it’s not the first time it’s happened. There were a couple of times earlier in the season when we still had all to play for that we went a couple of goals down and just succumbed to it and rolled over. That suggests to me that it’s in the players’ make-up.

“I’ve got a lot of time for Swindon manager Dave Webb, but he’s made one enforced substitution and changed their formation and our lads struggled to contend with that. A good side should have been able to handle it.

“We had a really healthy gate in today and to perform like that is a real shame. It feels as if we’ve let the supporters down and that’s not a good thing for a manager to have to say.”