SATURDAY was a truly bad day at the office for Knutsford FC.

Following an enforced reshuffle of their side, Nick Ward’s side saw them thrashed 5-0 at home by neighbours Styal in their first game for a fortnight.

Reds never recovered from a nightmare start which saw them fall two goals down in the early stages as they slipped to back-to-back defeats in Cheshire Football League One.

They now sit 10th in the table with eight league games remaining, starting with another home game on Saturday as Newton Athletic visit Manchester Road.

Knutsford made the worst possible start when, after Styal had hit the post, stand-in goalkeeper Jack Sharratt miscued his kick to a visiting player, who made no mistake to open the scoring after eight minutes.

Styal had a goal ruled out for offside shortly afterwards but were gifted a second goal on 12 minutes to further dent Knutsford’s confidence.

Led by Tom Bowey, Knutsford tried to look for a response but lacked quality and failed to seriously test Styal even after the visitors had two players sin-binned for dissent.

The next goal was going to be crucial and three minutes after half time, Styal got it to effectively end the contest.

Reds huffed and puffed in their bid to salvage some pride but were limited to only half-chances, with Nathan Bibby blazing the best of them over the bar.

Just after the hour mark, Styal scored twice in three minutes to add further gloss to the scoreline and comfortably saw out the remainder of the contest.

Knutsford: Sharratt, Midgely, Shaw (King), Brotherton, W Potts, Rodick, Kennedy, Bibby, Bowey (J Potts), Spencer (Daverin)