LYMINGTON and New Milton picked off Poppies in a comfortable Wessex One victory, but on a distinctly autumnal evening, their display left boss Ian Robinson decidedly cold.

After a rip-roaring FA Cup giant-killing of Southern League Chippenham Town at the weekend, Robinson admitted he feared the local derby clash with Shaun Brooks' Poppies could be "a case of after the Lord Mayor's show".

And despite showing flashes of the pace and movement that had slashed the Chippenham defence to shreds during their famous cup triumph, they were only able to finally kill off the battling visitors thanks to a late double from sub Kevin James.

Robinson said: "There was no flair or fizz about our play. The quality of our play in the first half was appalling.

"You look for a standard and if you reach it as we did on Saturday, you're not happy when you only get 50 per cent of that.

"We give people a chance. Rather than shutting up shop and saying 'there's nothing for you here', we gave away stupid goals again.

"In the players' eyes, we've done enough, but overall we were second class and sloppy."

At 3-2 down with a quarter of the game to play, Brooks' side looked as if they could walk away from Fawcett's Field with something.

But the Victoria Park boss was not being fooled by the lethargic Linnets.

He said: "They won at a canter. We caught them off key and if we'd have got really close to them, they'd have stepped up a level. But we keep conceding simple goals which makes it hard work. At important times, we didn't do enough."

The opening goal set the trend for the standard of defending throughout as Mark Scrimshaw's inswinging centre was nodded past his own goalkeeper by Paul Towler to put Poppies ahead six minutes in.

But when visiting keeper Kyle Roberjot first failed to claim a through ball and then fumbled a simple cross, Paddy James and Michael Jackson capitalised to put the hosts 2-1 ahead.

Charlie Dibba and Fawzi Saadi missed gilt-edged chances to level things up before the break and Linnets made them pay when James grabbed his second 15 minutes into the second half, rapping in after some more hesitant defending.

Dibba's free header from a Saadi free-kick kept Poppies in with a shout but Kevin James twice raced clear in the last 15 minutes to finish coolly, moving Robinson's side into the top ten and leaving Brooks desperately seeking rearguard reinforcements.

Linnets: Watson, King (Carter 55), Sheppard, Towler, P Smith, Thomson, Anderson (K James 71), Clothier, Reacord, P James, Jackson (Crook 71)

Poppies: Roberjot, Neville (Banfield 45) , Bryning (Wilkes 75), L Dibba, Crutcher, Till, Merritt (Roberts 45), Cuglietta, Scrimshaw, Saadi, C Dibba