Market Drayton Town’s away run of four games without defeat came to an unhappy end with a second-half surrender at runaway Evo-Stik League division one south table-toppers Barwell.

After dominating their high-flying opponents throughout the opening 45 minutes and hitting the bar twice, Town fell apart after the break, shipping four goals in 20 minutes.

“We were made to look like schoolboys,” stormed manager Simon Line.

“Suddenly, for no apparent reason, we didn’t have a team but 11 players doing 11 different things.

“We simply accepted everything they threw at us and let ourselves get bullied out of it.

“No one was prepared to stand up and take responsibility for combating what was going on and we paid for it.

“For a while, I simply could not believe what I was seeing.

“We’d played really well in the first half and could have been a couple of goals ahead.

“We kept them on the back foot and were desperately unlucky not to score.”

Town made the trip in high hopes of extending a good run on the road, expecting Barwell’s confidence to be low after suffering their first home defeat of the season, by a massive 4-0 margin, against Lincoln United on Saturday.

Barwell were made to struggle and stutter early on, desperately trying to rekindle any sort of form.

But when Jimmy Towers struck four minutes after the break for the first goal of his hat-trick, Drayton hit the skids.

Kev Charley made it two on the hour and with Barwell suddenly able to run riot, Towers helped himself to more in the 63rd and 79th minutes.

Victory kept Barwell six points ahead of challengers Kidsgrove, who thrashed Romulus 5-1 last night.

For their part, Drayton remain fourth from bottom — and while relegation’s still not impossible, it’s increasingly unlikely.

A major consolation is that Saturday’s game is at bottom of the table Spalding United, who have long been hot favourites for the drop.

By Terry Morris