Manager Ricky Marheineke admitted St Ives Town let down their supporters yesterday.

The struggling Saints were beaten 2-1 by Dorchester in the latest outing of a tough Southern League Premier Division season.

The Dorset visitors hit two early goals to claim just their second away win of the campaign as Saints fell to 12th defeat in 18 league home fixtures. The bad news is that five of their remaining six games are also at ProEdge Westwood Road!

Marheineke admitted: “A lot of people put a lot of hard work into getting the game on.

“It was a terrific effort from them, but unfortunately it wasn’t followed by a terrific performance.

“Once again we haven’t repaid the hard work of our loyal club servants and supporters, and that disappoints me.

“I’m not going to say too much about our performance because it will simply be a case of repeating things I’ve already said on many occasions this season.

“If this was a typical season at this level, we would have been relegated yesterday. That’s all we need to know.”

Ashley Pope needed only three minutes to put the visitors ahead and the same player doubled the Dorchester advantage when heading an Antonio Diaz cross past Tim Trebes after 20 minutes.

That second goal did at least spark a response from Saints as Danny Kelly struck for the second time in three games when turning in a Tom Knowles cross.

Knowles then saw a penalty appeal ignored on the stroke of half-time before a Rogan McGeorge cross hit the bar in the second half.

But Saints rarely looked like levelling as they produced a display which did little to enhance their players’ chances of earning deals for next season.

Marheineke added: “As far as I’m aware, I’m still going to be the manager here and I’m putting the players into three categories – yes, maybes or no.

“As things stand, we’ve probably got two in the ‘yes’ category, seven in the ‘maybe’ and eight no’s.

“This was an opportunity for lads to prove to me they deserve a future at the club and it wasn’t taken.

“We’ve got six games coming up in 14 days to finish the season. We won’t be training again so it is up to the boys to perform on the pitch.”

Saints entertain Stratford on Tuesday and Redditch on Thursday.