PICKERING Town have fallen to the bottom of the Pitching In Northern Premier League east after suffering a 5-2 defeat at title challengers Marske United.

Marske and Pickering exchanged early goals inside the opening dozen minutes, through Junior Mondal and Omar Sanyang respectively.

The hosts soon began to assert their dominance with Mondal, Adam Boyes and Curtis Round adding to the lead.

United could have been further ahead but for a fine penalty save from Pickering's Lucas Martin.

Mondal secured his hat-trick early in the second half to round off Marske's scoring.

Town rallied thereafter and hit back through Donny Holdsworth on 67 minutes.

Pickering manager Steve Roberts reflected: “We were missing a couple of key players, which never helps, especially coming here, as I was quite confident of us making it tough for them.

“In the first half, we let ourselves down with our decision-making and I thought that three of the goals could have been avoided.

“But fair play to them because they dug in in the second half, in really tough conditions as well.

“Some players came off injured as well, so it’s been a really tough night.

"We said it to the players, that this won’t dictate our season because they’re a good side and we’ve to look forward from that second-half display.”

For Pickering, who are now four points adrift of guaranteed safety, their opposition does not get any easier this weekend as they host third-placed Stockton.

“We’ve got to move on fast from this now," added Roberts.

“This isn’t going to dictate where we are at the end of the season because we’re going to pick ourselves up and go again on Saturday.”