PURTON’S run of 11 games unbeaten came to an end in spectacular fashion as they crashed to a 5-0 defeat away to Cirencester Town Development.

The Redhouse men had the opportunity to move into the top three with the sides above them not in action but they could not capitalise.

You have to go back to October to find the last time Purton tasted defeat at the hands of league leaders Longlevens and manager Justin Miller said a two-week break and a poor Corinium Stadium pitch did not help his side on Saturday.

“It was pretty bad. We were pretty poor from start to finish,” admitted Miller “We were 1-0 down at half-time having missed three one-on-ones, but having said that they were the better side even though we should have been 3-1 up at half-time.

“They are a very good team but we always felt we had a chance but we conceded the second and we capitulated really.

“The one thing that has got us where we are is working hard for each other and we didn’t do that on Saturday.

“We haven’t played for two weeks which didn’t help and we turned up on Saturday and played on a park pitch.

“They groundshare with Wotton Bassett and how the Hellenic League have allowed that to happen is beyond me.

“That is not taking anything away from the result because we were beaten by the better team.”

Miller knew his side’s run of matches without defeat would come to an end at some stage and is now interested with how his side reacts next weekend when they face local rivals New College Swindon.

“All we’re interested in is trying to get as many points on the board and we’ll see where that takes us,” added Miller.

“If we finish in the top four then that is a good season for us.

“You are going to get beat after a long run and it is our first league defeat since October, it is going to get broken at some time.

“I think we have over achieved but we’ll get together and train Tuesday and no doubt we’ll get a great performance on Saturday from the boys because they will be hurting from that.”