Worst performance of the season as Shirebrook ship five goals at Melton Town

Shirebrook manager Rudy Funk said: “Just when we think we’ve taken two steps forward in the last two games, today was a massive step backwards.

“We let ourselves down today and that is something we can’t accept but the good thing is we have a midweek game to come and we need a massive reaction.”

Shirebrook were on the road for the third consecutive weekend as they made the trip to Melton with the sides having already meet this season and Melton scoring deep into injury time to take all three points.

Shirebrook were looking to avenge that defeat and keep up the positive momentum they had started to build over the previous two weekends.

But it was quickly obvious what task Shirebrook had come up against as Melton dominated the opening 10 minutes with Will Norcross and Mikkel Hurst both having early chances for the home side.

And it was no surprise when Melton took the lead in the 15th minute when a shot from just outside the box took a deflection off one of the Shirebrook defenders and fell into the path of Hurst, who had the simple task of smashing the ball past Mitchell Leivers in the Shirebrook goal.

Melton added a second goal 10 minutes later when a corner from the right found the head of Melton captain Lewis Carr, who headed past Leivers into the bottom corner.

Melton kept pushing and Shirebrook keeper Mitchel Leivers was very busy, being called into action a number of times.

But Melton were unable to add to the scoreline before the break and with Shirebrook's only shot in anger coming from a John Lowe effort from distance that was well over the bar, they knew they needed to be much better in the second half if they were going to get anything from the game.

Shirebrook started the second half much brighter with Tom McNally teeing up Trent Jules, who fired his effort just wide.

Kieran Sykes Tobin also went close to scoring with his first touch after being introduced off the bench when he met John Lowe's corner.

But Shirebrook's bright start was brought to an abrupt end in the 60th minute when Melton netted their third goal through Kieran Hayes.

With the game all but over, Melton pushed forward looking to add more goals and had a number of chances. But wasteful finishing meant they didn’t add a fourth until the 73rd minute when sub Kairo Edwards-John latched onto a through ball and found himself one on one with Mitchell Leivers and fired into the bottom corner.

Melton then finished off the scoring in the 85th minutes when Keenan King was played in down the left and cut inside and fired into the bottom corner.