Although Town welcomed back Mike Armstrong after injury, they were without skipper Stuart Hutton who had to pull out of the game late due to illness.

With Hutton being unavailable, Steve Morley had to change the formation at the back which proved unfortunate as Stanton stormed into a three goal halftime lead with the Town defence never looking comfortable.

Stanton's first goal came in the tenth minute when the home side were awarded a very dubious penalty kick against Steve Haywood which Dilks duly despatched.

Dilks scored his and his teams second goal of the game on 20 minutes when he got on the end of a long ball and managed to flick it over the out rushing Paul Gains.

The striker completed his hat trick just before half time when a wayward shot from Pride sliced fortuitously into his path but there was nothing lucky about the way he thrashed the ball beyond Gains into the net.

All Town had to show for the first half endeavours was an effort from Aron Burton which was off target and a Blakey shot easily saved by Harvey.

Town regrouped for the second half but were dealt an early blow when striker Mike Armstrong suffered a reoccurrence of the ankle injury which has kept him out in recent weeks and he was replaced by Stuart Leafe.

Whether trying to prove his manager wrong for leaving him out in the first place or not, only he will know, but Leafe's performance after his introduction seemed to inspire his team mates.

First, skipper for the day, Andy Davey rose in front of keeper Harvey but unluckily saw his header cleared off the goal line by a defender and then Steve Haywood whistled a shot just over the Stanton crossbar from distance as Town fought hard to get back in the game.

Lewis Blakey then went close on two occasions the first after great work between Leafe and Nick Manders, but unfortunately for the young striker, neither effort troubled Harvey.

In the dying minutes Stanton grabbed a fourth goal through Reddish who headed home from a corner and at the other end Stuart Leafe went close to scoring a consolation goal for Town but put his header narrowly wide.

At the final whistle Town's away jinx had struck again and they have now conceded 13 goals in the last three away games.

Town will be pleased to be back at Park Avenue next Saturday, where their home form is so much better than on their travels. Harworth Colliery are the visitors for a game which kicks off at 3pm.

Team: Gains, Haywood, Hopper, Willson, Casey, Davey (Capt), Manders, Morley, L Blakey, Armstrong, Burton. Subs: Leafe, R Blakey.