Gorleston 0, Felixstowe & Walton Utd 4
Gorleston joint-manager Stu Larter refused to blame his players as they crumbled to a highly disappointing defeat on Saturday.
Felixstowe & Walton United made light work of a below-par Gorleston to record their fourth away win of the season.
'We'll learn from this and it's up to myself and Richard (Daniels) to put things right in training,' said Larter. 'This year is a learning process for the players; we have a young side that need to learn to play in this league.
'The Ridgeons Premier Division is more competitive than the Ridgeons First Division and you do get hurt more if you're not completely on your game.'
Larter added: 'We are pleased what we have done so far this season, let's not underestimate that. We're sitting 11th in the table and not a million miles off the top six.'
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The visitors needed just 50 seconds to punish Gorleston as the Seasiders' Ben Cranfield applied the finishing touch to Matthew Ryland's free-kick.
Liam Harvey-Cooper, cutting in from the left, did his best to get the Greens back on level terms, but his low effort was palmed behind by Guy Clubb for a corner. The visiting goalkeeper was again forced into action from the resulting flag kick, saving well from Andrew Howell's thumping header.
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Gorleston's fortunes were about to take a turn for the worse as they conceded a calamitous second just after the half hour mark. Greens' shot stopper Elliot Pride fumbled a Ryland cross in the six-yard box, his desperate clearance then bounced off the luckless Adam Thurtle via Eddie Thompson and the ball trickled over the line.
Three minutes later Seasiders' skipper Ryland turned goalscorer with a brilliant 25-yarder into the top left-hand corner beyond the helpless Pride.
The hosts showed a slight improvement in the second half as Andrew Howell, Harvey-Cooper and Christy Finch all went close with decent efforts.
However, ex-Colchester United striker Sandford pounced for his second deep into injury time – taking full advantage of poor defending from Thompson to complete Gorleston's misery.
Gorleston travel to Great Yarmouth on Boxing Day.
