Marine's Adie Adams, right, goes past a Stourport Swifts opponent Ref: 76795-66Supermarine missed the chance to all but put to bed fears of relegation as a below par performance against Stourport Swifts saw Mark Collier's men slip to their second consecutive 3-2 defeat.

With Marine sitting four points and five places clear of the Division One West drop zone before Saturday's meeting with Swifts, another three points would have seen the club hold a clear lead in the race to avoid relegation.

But defeat coupled with relegation rivals picking up points leave Marine facing a familiar scrap in their final five fixtures.

In a lacklustre first-half showing Marine created few chances.

Lance Lewis had the best of them, seeing a first-time volley fly wide before having another shot saved by Aaron O'Malley.

These efforts aside Marine rarely troubled O'Malley in the first period allowing the lively Richard Burgess to control Swifts' front running.

Burgess, however, found Tom King in decent form with Marine's shot stopper denying the striker on more than one occasion.

The breakthrough finally came five minutes before the end of the first half as Duncan Willets scrambled the ball over the line to give the visitors the lead.

With Marine still recovering from going a goal down, they were caught out once more. Steve Bennett intercepted a long ball aimed for Burgess but his wayward header flew past King to give Swifts a two-goal cushion before half-time.

In the second half the home side began to find some rhythm but just as they were edging back in to the game Willets pounced again from close range to give is side a seemingly insurmountable lead.

As they did against Clevedon last Monday, Marine came back strongly in the last half an hour with the fight back being led by the dynamic Steve Davies.

Davies went up to play alongside Lewis and within minutes of the switch Marine reduced the deficit.

Davies forced his way inside the box and fired low past O'Malley to give Marine a glimmer of hope.

When Lewis was pulled down in the box with 20 minutes remaining Giles Harris, who missed a penalty at Clevedon, stepped up and made no mistake this time around.

Davies again went close but saw his shot palmed away by O'Malley. Lewis then fired wide before making way for Dave Gee.

In the final minutes fellow substitute Karl Palmer looked certain to snatch the equaliser but shot over when well placed.

The defeat leaves Marine three points above the drop zone.

More photographs appear in Monday's Evening Advertiser