Potters Bar suffered a crushing defeat away to Carshalton Athletic as the promotion-chasing Robins secured a 5-1 win.

Going into the match the Scholars were looking to build on top of their 2-1 win at home to Hornchurch, another side looking for promotion, seven days earlier.

But after only 11 minutes Lee O'Leary's side were behind thanks to a Luke Read header. It wasn't a goal that the Bar boss would be pleased with either as there were two unmarked men who won headers leading up to the goal.

The second was also down to a defensive mistake.

The visitors were trying to play out of the back when Jack Humphrey was caught on the ball by Lewis White who stormed into the box before being taken down by both Humphrey and R'avan Constable.

The referee played advantage though as the ball ran to Carshalton forward Ricky Korboa who stayed calm and passed the ball into the open net on 31 minutes.

It could have been worse for Potter Bar town after a speculative shot from 35 yards hit the bar with Constable stranded but it remained 2-0 at half time.

The opening to the second half proved the end of any hopes the Scholars had of getting back into the game.

A square ball was played across the box and left Christie Pattisson with an easy finish to make it 3-0 and defender Read struck again with a deflected strike from outside the box, that left Constable wrong footed and Potters Bar stunned.

There was still 35 minutes to play at this point and O'Leary decided to make a change to try and salvage something from the match, with Charley Barker coming on to play his third game for the Scholars.

However, Carshalton got the next goal, Omar Komora going round the keeper after being played through, shrugging off the challenge from Dwight Pascal to score.

Barker did score a consolation after a ball got a played into the box and the home defence struggled to clear, allowing the former Braintree man to smash it into the back of the net.

Potters Bar Town currently sit 12th in the Isthmian League Premier Division, 17 points behind the play-offs and 15 clear of Corinthian Casuals, who they host on Saturday, in the relegation places.