AFTER conceding three goals for the first time this season, Swindon Supermarine manager Lee Spalding admits his players were taught a lesson by Walton Casuals.

Marine arrived later than planned for the Southern League Premier Division South clash and saw their less-than-ideal build-up spill onto the pitch as they found themselves 3-0 at the interval.

The second half showed some level of response from the visiting side, as Conor McDonagh restored some pride to reduce the scoreline to 3-1.

“It was a bit of disaster by all accounts. The match preparation wasn’t great and that never helps but there are no excuses for the first half performance,” said Spalding.

“We actually started quite well. We had a great opportunity to score and we didn’t, then it all went downhill from there.

“We pressed the self destruct button, conceded three goals and that is quite unusual for us.

“Credit to them, (Walton) they were a very good footballing team, they passed the ball really well.

“There’s no excuse, they were much the better side in the first half and scored three good goals.

“Defensively, we were nowhere near good enough.

“To be fair to the players I told them to go out there, win the second half and not to lay down feeling sorry for themselves and they did that.”

The result came as a bit of a shock for Spalding, with his troops going into the game off the back of two good previous results in the FA Cup.

With that momentum, Spalding admitted it was a shame they were unable to extend their recent fortunes.

“It’s a learning curve, we had a footballing lesson for 20 minutes,” he said.

“We have to start again now. You have to pick ourselves up and think about the next game, which is Yate Town on Tuesday.

“There is no point looking ahead to next Saturday. We need to keep winning games, we have come off of a defeat and now it is important we respond to that and put it right.”