St Ives Town’s winning run was brought to a halt by a club legend yesterday.
Jimmy Dean - a promotion-winning skipper for Saints in the past - was a victorious manager at Westwood Road as his Peterborough Sports side claimed a 3-0 victory in the Southern League Premier Division Central.
It was a success nowhere near as emphatic as the scoreline might suggest with Saints left to rue a catalogue of missed chances while their visitors were much more ruthless.
Cameron Johnson put Sports ahead in the 20th minute after a smart initial save by Saints keeper Fin Iron.
Matt Foy and Dylan Wilson then fluffed golden chances early in the second half before Saints were killed off by two goals in the space of three minutes from Sports men Dion Sembie-Ferris and Jim Stevenson.
Danny Kelly and Tom Wood then squandered other golden chances to ignite a comeback as Saints were found wanting in both boxes.
"I'm not disappointed with our performances by any means," said Marheineke. "But I am disappointed with the result.
"Anyone watching the game could see us create the best chances, but we found ourselves on the receiving end of a 3-0 defeat.
"We were very good from box-to-box, but not good enough in either box, which is something I've had to say several times this season.
"The first goal was a poor one to give away and it's not ideal to have to chase games of football.
"But I was confident we could get ourselves back into it and we did that in the early part of the second half but couldn't take our chances in front of goal.
"Matt headed straight at the goalkeeper from six yards and Dylan couldn't put away the easiest chance he'll have all season.
"Had we taken one or both of those opportunities we would have had the momentum and maybe even gone on to win the game.
"But we ended up looking deflated and ran out of steam as the game went on which is entirely understandable given it's such a gruelling schedule at the moment with so many players missing.
"We got exposed on the counter-attack a couple of times which finished the game although we still came back with good chances which we couldn't take."
Saints now face two crucial away clashes in the coming days.
They head to rock-bottom Leiston on Tuesday (7.45pm) before travelling to Alvechurch on Saturday, 3pm. The Midlands side are currently level with Saints in the Premier Division Central standings.
Marheineke will again be selecting from a depleted squad with captain Robbie Parker among those on the lengthy injured list after missing the loss to Sports.
"We've got more players missing and others playing through knocks," added Marheineke.
"Ideally we need a fresher squad than we currently have for two important games, but that's just not possible at the moment.
"I'm confident that whichever 11 players we pick will perform well in both games and hopefully pick up points." There was a long-awaited return for Saints against Sports as Josh Dawkin made his first competitive appearance for the club since suffering a double leg-break two-and-a-half years ago.
The wideman was introduced as a second-half substitute 904 days after the horror injury in the final league game of the 2016/17 campaign.
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