Moneys flying high but Shortt-sighted dismissal is costly

The win was marred, however, by the second-half dismissal of goalkeeper Matt Shortt.

The stopper’s dismissal adds to the city club’s poor disciplinary record this season.

Manager Dave Carter now faces the problem of finding a replacement goalkeeper with Shortt likely to miss three games over the Christmas period.

‘The whole thing was totally unnecessary,’ said Carter.

‘When Cowes scored, our goalkeeper picked the ball up out of the net and their player went in to get it off him.

‘They ended up fighting over the ball and Matt pushed the ball into his face.

‘We could have done without that because the game was already won and there was no way that Cowes would get back into it.’

Tyler Giddings took over between the posts and despite being a man short the visitors went on to add a fifth goal.

The league leaders took charge against their lowly hosts from the start, scoring three goals in the opening 25 minutes.

On 10 minutes, Gav Spurway tapped in after a Gary Austin shot came back off the goalkeeper.

Within five minutes James Guthrie added a second with Austin stretching the lead still further soon afterwards.

The game was virtually over as a contest two minutes into the second half as Austin drilled in another shot from the edge of the area.

The Yachtsmen pulled a goal back but Guthrie confirmed the visitors’ superiority with his second goal of the game.

Elsewhere, A disappointing second-half saw Fareham Town slip to a 2-1 defeat in their relegation battle at Verwood Town.

Raemur Henry gave the Reds a deserved half-time lead but two defensive errors in the final 12 minutes cost Fareham dear.

‘We dominated the opening 35 minutes and looked as though we could go on and win it,’ said boss Steve Stone.

‘In the second half, though, we lost our shape a little bit.

‘Once Verwood equalised you could see heads go down.

‘The players we have are doing a great job but we have to keep making changes to the team.

‘We know that we are in a relegation dogfight.

‘With new players coming in it is going to take time.

‘We just have to hope that is something that we don’t run out of.’