Helston Athletic manager Steve Massey bemoaned individual errors after his side’s shock 6-1 loss at Liskeard Athletic on Saturday.

Perhaps still smarting from seeing their 26-game winning league run go up in smoke after a 3-3 draw at home to Newquay on Wednesday night, the Blues fell two goals down after just ten minutes through Thomas Cleveland and James Lorenz.

Liskeard, who were the last team to defeat Helston in a league match on August 17 last year, did not stop there and Cleveland scored his second midway through the half before Tom Savigar put a fourth past the shellshocked visitors just before the break.

It got worse in the second half as Cleveland completed his hat-trick before Savigar bagged a scarcely believable sixth, before Matt Buchan came off the bench to score a consolation from the spot for the Blues late on.

“My take on it was if you count all of the goals, including ours, on the highlights package and you watched the game through and you were asked: 'One team won 6-1, who was it?’ I think there’d be quite a few people that would say it was probably Helston.

“Luke Gwillam [Liskeard goalkeeper] had an exceptional game. He pulled off two worldies from [Billy] Tucker. They went into our area maybe six times and scored four goals [in the first half], and we made really individual errors.

“I haven’t seen us perform as poorly as that individually, particularly defensively.

“It’s easy to dismiss it as just one of those days, but I don’t want one of those days again. It was really, really weird to think I don’t know what really happened.”

He added: “I went into the Liskeard dressing room and I said that they really did a job on us, they played really well, fully deserved it and [it was] a great performance.

“We were really unfortunate. On another day we could have had three, four, five goals, it just didn’t go for us. We were just shellshocked to be perfectly honest.”

But Massey still has confidence in his side and was keen to remind of their success so far, saying: “We had a real heart-to-heart afterwards. A few things were said, all positives, and I still believe and still think that if anybody’s going to win this year, they’re going to have to finish above us.

“If anybody said to me: ‘Here’s your next 30 league games, you can win 28, draw one and lose one, will you take it?’ and I defy any manager not to take that.”

Right-back Will Tinsley played the final quarter of the game in goal after goalkeeper Jason Robertson limped off with a twisted ankle, and it is to be Robertson’s final appearance between the sticks for now, with Massey confirming that the ‘keeper is to step away from first-team duties, although he will remain with the club and play for the second and third teams.

“I would really like to thank Jason for what he’s done,” Massey said. “He’s just stepping aside and taking time out of the first team. He’s saved us so many points, and was a huge part in our huge, record-breaking league run last year.

“I wish him well with his sabbatical.”

Massey is searching for a replacement and is confident of having a new man in place ahead of Wednesday night’s derby at home to Falmouth Town.