BOSS Matty Holmes pulled no punches after watching Wimborne Town suffer their heaviest defeat of the season, admitting they had been architects of their own downfall.

Toby Holmes’s 13th-minute opener gave the Magpies an ideal start against fellow Southern League Division One South & West high-fliers Swindon Supermarine at Cuthbury on Tuesday.

But a calamitous defensive display – with skipper Scott Arnold culpable for the first two goals – saw the visitors run out deserved winners as Wimborne tasted defeat for the second time in four days.

Arnold, who had celebrated his 500th appearance for the club against Hereford on Saturday, was at fault for Josh Parsons’s 16th-minute equaliser and then netted the first own goal of his distinguished career.

He later took to Twitter to post a picture of an ostrich with its head buried in the sand accompanied by the words "this is me the next few days".

While Arnold’s shaky display was out of character, he was certainly not alone as the majority of his team-mates continued to squander possession in a collective off-night for Magpies.

In truth, had it not been for the woodwork and a series of fine saves from Cherries loan goalkeeper Pat O’Flaherty, Wimborne could have been subjected to further humiliation.

Connor Waldon, Parsons with his second and Joe Selman scored after the break for Supermarine during a second half in which Magpies failed to muster a shot on target.

Holmes, who presided over Wimborne’s biggest win in the Southern League just three weeks previously, told the Daily Echo: “We set about pressing high and moving the ball and went 1-0 up. After that, I was speechless to know what happened.

“Looking at the bigger picture, I thought we got done at our own game. Swindon played beautiful football at times, picked us off and really caught us out. We got our bottoms smacked.

“I have done a graph and marked our performances out of 10 for every game. We are going up and down. We have to try to maintain our performances levels, which we are not doing at the moment.

“It is disappointing because there are some good, honest boys in the squad and some good players. Tactically, we were given the run-around.

“Swindon did a job on us. They knew we would pass the ball, they locked us in and we gave it away in ridiculous areas. Our passing wasn’t great either. They are a good side and there is a reason they are near the top.

“Our players know what to do if we are being pressed. They know we have a longer pass if we need it. It was just a case of having too many players off their game.”

Defeat saw Wimborne slip to ninth in the table ahead of Saturday’s visit to winless Wantage Town.

Magpies: O’Flaherty, Walker, Hester, Arnold (Cordnor, 61), S Davidson, Kellaway, Stokoe, Penny, T Holmes, Lanahan (Cooper, 80), Lovell.