WINCHESTER City boss Ian Saunders didn’t mince his words after Saturday’s 2-0 home humbling by Swindon Supermarine in the Southern One South & West.

The Citizens were distinctly second-best on a forgettable afternoon at the Denplan City Ground and Saunders fears that, without a massive improvement, his side will be in for a hiding away to form side Salisbury on Tuesday (7.45pm).

While Winchester were thankful to goalkeeper Lewis Noice for keeping the score down against Supermarine, Steve Claridge’s promotion hopefuls Salisbury were busy banging five past Larkhall Athletic at Old Sarum – their 14th win from the last 15 league outings.

After watching goals by Supermarine's Callum Parsons (38 mins) and Brad Hooper (54 mins) put Winchester to the sword, Saunders admitted: “We were very, very poor. It wasn’t a performance I’d expect from this group.

“Saying that, take nothing away from Swindon, they were excellent.

“They worked harder than us, they were first to every ball and they passed us all over the park.

“We couldn’t get going because they wouldn’t let us.

“But, no excuses, that performance was not acceptable. We’d spoken about seeing how many points we could get between now and the end of the season, but we looked like a side with nothing to play for.”

And he warned: “It’s out of the chip pan into the fire at Salisbury on Tuesday. If we go and play like we did yesterday, we’ll be on the end of a massacre. We need to be much better.”

There were no such problems for Salisbury who ran riot after the break once man-of-the-match Lewis Benson had broken the deadlock in first-half stoppage time against Larkhall.

Tom Whelan and Claudio Herbert trebled the lead before deadly duo Justin Bennett and Tommy Wright added two more in the last ten minutes.

It keeps the Whites fourth in the table, four points adrift of third-placed Tiverton with two games in hand.

Ninth-placed Winchester will still be without Adam Tomasso, Danny King (both injured) and ex-White Robbie Matthews (unavailable) for the trip to the Ray Mac.

Wideman Joe Briggs has been struggling with a groin issue and is unlikely to be risked.