AFC TOTTON’S torrid run of games against the Southern One South & West’s top four came to a painful end at the Testwood Stadium this afternoon.

The Stags were outclassed 5-1 by mighty league leaders Merthyr Town as they slumped to their fifth straight defeat, stretching their winless run to seven league games.

The Stags suffered a pre-match blow when Mike Gosney pulled out suffering food poisoning.

Nathaniel Sherborne returned to the starting line-up deployed wide left, while Joe Maxwell again started up front with top scorer Craig Feeney named on the bench.

Totton began brightly, forcing a corner in the opening few seconds via Liam Hibberd’s deflected blast.

Table-topping Merthyr looked nothing special in the opening stages – their first glimpse of quality coming when Ian Traylor breezed past Ellis White on the right.

He laid the ball off to ex-Saint Kayne McLaggon, who got his shot all wrong and fired well wide.

The Stags conjured up a couple of half chances with Maxwell’s header from Stuart Mott’s cross going straight to keeper Tom Bradley and then Jack Hoey giving Bradley a tad more work to do with crisp strike from the left.

But, from a position of relative comfort, the Stags fell behind to a goal out of nothing 15-minutes in.

Traylor let fly with an angled shot from the left and any hope young AFC Bournemouth keeper Pat O’Flaherty had of reaching it disappeared when it flicked off Ryan PROSSER’S head into the far corner.

How much Prosser knew about it was debatable, but it signalled a major turning point in the game as the Martyrs suddenly hit their stride.

With McLaggon causing all sorts of problems, Prosser should have made it two when the former Southampton man found him free in front of goal, but Totton managed to scramble the ball behind.

Merthyr pulled the Stags defence in all directions and Prosser again found himself in on goal in the 26th minute, this time teed-up by Traylor. But 17-year-old O’Flaherty denied him with a terrific block with his legs.

The Stags then forced a succession of set-pieces to earn themselves a breather, but there was always that ominous feeling that Merthyr would come again.

And so it transpired in the 34th minute when a long ball forward flicked off Gilbert’s head into the path of PROSSER who manoeuvred himself into position on the edge of the box, shrugging off two Totton defenders as he did so, before drilling the ball low into O’Flaherty’s bottom right-hand corner for 2-0.

The ease with which Merthyr opened Totton up was awesome at times and, with 41-minutes gone, the Welshmen made it three.

A long ball out of defence reached Traylor on the right and he played the ball across for MCLAGGON to slip it effortlessly past O’Flaherty to leave Totton with a second-half mountain to climb.

Totton made a half-time substitution with Jamie Blackburn replacing defender Rob Flooks and, within ten minutes Feeney was brought on for Maxwell.

In between, it was the visitors who forged the first big chance of the half, but young O’Flaherty stood up well to McLaggon’s threat and saved with his feet.

Totton boss Steve Riley then made his third and final roll of the dice, replacing Taylor Edwards with Zac Mouland just after the hour.

And with Merthyr seemingly taking their foot off the gas, a more even contest unfolded.

The Stags kept fighting and were rewarded with a goal on 69 minutes when Sherborne was taken out by sub Dan Summerfield on the left. Gilbert pumped the free-kick into the box and WHITE’S header found the net beyond the reach of Bradley.

But any glimmer of Totton hope was snuffed out on 78 minutes when TRAYLOR collected a ball down the left, brushed past the nearest defender and beat O’Flaherty one on one with an arrowed shot into the far corner.

It got worse for Riley’s men with three minutes of normal time remaining. Ryan Green’s deep free-kick from inside Merthyr’s own half should have been dealt with, but it bounced over a couple of Totton heads and reached sub Corey JENKINS who coolly hooked the ball over O’Flaherty for 5-1.