VERDICT: Dreadful Diamonds humiliated by Coalville

Any confidence the Diamonds squad had gained from their first Southern League Premier Central win of the season at Barwell on Saturday would have been wiped out on what proved to be a sobering night.

There’s no doubt about it, Coalville are a very good side and will surely be challenging for the title in the final shake up.

But they also aren’t the world beaters that Diamonds made them look like, particularly in a brutal second half when Andy Burgess’ team, quite frankly, surrendered.

In fairness, Burgess hasn’t been helped by injuries to key defenders Evangelos-Nikalaos Empochontsif and Matthew Fossen while Courntey Lashley had to be withdrawn after 35 minutes to leave Diamonds with a patched up back four.

You couldn’t help but have a bit of sympathy for Under-23 player Joshua Going who was thrown in for his first-team debut and, in fairness, he didn’t disgrace himself despite the scoreline.

But that’s where the excuses end because, for the most part, this wasn’t good enough and if there are further performances like this, a long, hard season will lie ahead.

Coalville started confidently and got the early goal they would have wanted when Diamonds failed to clear the danger and the outstanding Tim Berridge buried his shot into the net.

Diamonds’ best spell of the game came immediately after that early setback.

It took a brilliant block from Jake Eggleton to deny Jenson Cooper after Conor Tee’s shot had been deflected into his path. Sadly, that proved to be Diamonds’ best chance of the night with Paul White a spectator in the Coalville goal for the majority of the evening.

Diamonds did, however, do a decent job in restricting the clear-cut chances at the other end until Berridge produced a moment of magic five minutes before half-time as he brilliantly volleyed home the sort of goal that deserved to win any match.

And that’s when it all began to unravel.

There was time, too much time indeed, for Luke Shaw to fire home a low shot after he exchanged passes with Billy Kee on the stroke of half-time.

And, if anyone was hoping Coalville would take their foot off the gas after the break, they were sorely mistaken.

The Diamonds defence was almost non-existent as the visitors were allowed to have their way with them and run in four more goals in the space of 26 minutes.

Thomas McGlinchey danced his way into the area before scoring the fourth and he also grabbed the fifth, finishing off from close range after Shaw had unselfishly squared the ball to him when he might have shot himself.

Five became six when Berridge completed his hat-trick with a close-range finish after Elliot Putman sped away down the left and sent in a low cross.

And the humiliation was complete when McGlinchey stepped up to grab a share of the matchball from the penalty spot after Anthony Agemoh-Davies brought down substitute Tendai Chitiza in the area.

You could stand here all day long and pick holes in Diamonds’ display but what will surely alarm Burgess more than anything else would be the lack of fight shown to prevent such a brutal beating in the second half.

Somehow, some way, Diamonds will have to pick themselves up for what already looks like a crucial battle between the bottom two at Hednesford Town on Saturday.

Diamonds: Snedker; Agemoh-Davies, Going, Hughes, Lashley (sub Black, 35 mins); Worsfold-Gregg (sub Sutherland, h-t); Ngwa, Hicks, Akubuine, Tee; Cooper (sub Connor, 55 mins). Sub not used: Pinto-Leite.

Coalville: White; Wilson, Eggleton, Robertson (sub Pendley, 65 mins), Putman; McGlinchey, Doyle-Charles, Thanoj, Shaw; Kee (sub Chitiza, 51 mins), Berridge (sub Chambers, 74 mins). Subs not used: Smith, Taylor.

Referee: Richard Eley.

Goals: Berridge (6 mins, 0-1), Berridge (40 mins, 0-2), Shaw (45 mins 0-3), McGlinchey (51 mins, 0-4), McGlinchey (58 mins, 0-5), Berridge (61 mins, 0-6), McGlinchey pen (77 mins, 0-7).

Bookings: Cooper, Hughes (both fouls).

Northants Telegraph man-of-the-match: Tim Berridge - the Coalville striker was a class above anyone else. His second goal was as good as you’ll see anywhere but his general play was just too good for Diamonds to deal with.

Attendance: 374.