Feckenham 1 Romulus 5

FECKENHAM could claim to have played the nicer football but were undone by some appalling defending and the end of the season cannot come soon enough.

In a lively opening the Valley Stadium tenants found themselves a goal down after 20 seconds and trailing 2-1 with seven minutes on the clock.

The home defence seemed unwilling to tackle Romulus winger Jamie Shipway from the kick-off and the visiting winger took advantage to stride towards the left hand side of the penalty box before firing past Dave Inman at his near post.

The players had barely caught their breath before a scrappy equaliser arrived in the second minute when the hapless Nigel Richards headed past his own keeper from close range after the visitors failed to deal with an up and under into the six yard box from John Oliver. But on seven minutes Feckenham fell behind again as Richards was allowed as much time as he needed to pick out Robbie Hunter and the striker fired home from the edge of the D.

Romulus keeper Stuart Eustace was kept busy, denying Justin Dankenbring and Stuart Douglas twice as the Millers fought back but Inman partially redeemed himself at the other end to keep out Matthew Hawker.

The visitors increased their lead in the 43rd minute when Inman hesitated after Shipway broke the Millers' offside 'trap' and calmly rolled home his second past the exposed keeper.

Gavin Barratt came closest to scoring for the hosts when he spun in the area and crashed a shot onto the inside of the near post and across the line.

Inman twice blocked from Shipway early in the second half before Oliver allowed the visiting captain to saunter around him and complete his hat-trick with a delightful lob in the 51st minute.

The hosts' heads dropped and Hunter, Shipway, twice, and Ricky Martin all wasted chances to pile on the misery before Hawker drove home a fifth, two minutes from time after Hunter sidestepped Oliver in the box.