Loughborough Dynamo 8 Ludlow Town 0

AFTER a good defensive display in the first half, and only trailing to a single controversial goal, the Town defence fell apart in the second half. The home team netted seven more times to inflict the third Travel Factory Alliance defeat on Ludlow in the opening eight days of the season.

The first half was evenly contested with the Ludlow defence solid and likely to reach the interval intact. Unfortunately when a free kick was pumped forward, with five minutes of the half remaining, and three of the home forwards well offside but coming back, the referee interpreted them as not interfering with play and this midfield player strolled through to net.

This was a hammer blow as the visitors, who only created a couple of chances during the ninety minutes, knew from the outset that it was going to be an uphill struggle against a very fit outfit.

The second half was a disaster with the goals down to a catalogue of individual and sometimes schoolboy proportion errors as the home team took advantage of the lack of confidence in the visitors' ranks. Manager Jimmy Mullen said everyone at the club from himself down must look at how they can take on the responsibility to contribute towards an improvement in the performances.

Earlier in the week the team played well at Malvern for the first hour. Joe Williams cancelled out an early strike with a left foot drive into the roof of the net. After forcing the home keeper to make a number of excellent saves, Town conceded two goals on the hour mark to lose 3-1.