Brighouse Town 1 Witton Albion 5

A SECOND-HALF collapse led to a shock home defeat for Brighouse Town in the Evo-Stik Division One North as struggling Witton Albion went nap.

Paul Quinn’s Town were on the coat tails of the clubs in the play-off places in eighth spot in the table, and were unbeaten since losing at leaders Northwich Victoria.

Witton were a lowly 18th, and when Ryan Hall fired the home side in front on the stroke of half-time with a stunning shot into the top corner from distance Quinn’s men began to think of another three points – even though they were underperforming.

The visitors had other ideas and the comeback started on the hour mark when Alex Titchener equalised. Two goals in as many minutes turned the game in favour of Witton, with Jonathan Dawson and Robert Hopley on target.

Worse was to come for Town as Hopley netted his second before Jamie Menagh netted Albion’s fifth in the penultimate minute to consign Brighouse to their heaviest defeat of the season and their biggest loss since Witton beat them 4-1 in the reverse fixture back in September.

Quinn was philosophical, however, saying: “That’s football, it was a bad day at the office.

“It was one of those performances when too many of our players didn’t turn up and it’s a difficult one to swallow.

"I hope it’s just a blip because it was just one of those days when the players were not at it, if it’s just two or three that are below par sometimes you can still get a result but when it’s more like nine or ten players then you’ve got no chance.

“It was definitely the worst performance of the season.”