ANY optimism manager Louis Langdown had about AFC Totton’s Evo-Stik South West play-off hopes was sucked right out of him yesterday.

The visit of lowly Shortwood, who are pulling out of the league at the end of the season, was meant to be an uplifting opener to a hectic run of fixtures to come.

But, having taken a first-half lead when defender Jack Smith headed in Curtis Young’s corner, the lack-lustre Stags were undone by second-half goals from Nick Humphreys and Jack Freeman in a miserable 2-1 defeat.

Pulling no punches, Langdown admitted: “It was really, really bad. We had a decent crowd of around 300 and it’s a shame it fell so flat.

"Credit to Shortwood, they turned up with 11 players and, from minute one, got 11 behind the ball.

“We must have had 90 per cent possession, but we passed and passed and had no cutting edge.

"We didn’t look like a team pushing for the play-offs. It was like an end-of-season game.

“We’re okay against the big teams with lots of atmosphere, but this was very flat and we weren’t good enough to change it.

"It was a very naïve performance with no urgency or tempo.

“Shortwood hardly had the ball yet still managed to score two from our mistakes.”

Langdown can only hope the Stags will turn things round at Paulton Rovers on Tuesday (7.30pm) and at home to Winchester City on Thursday (7.45pm), but he confessed “No disrespect, but you don’t get to the play-offs losing to Shortwood at home."