COLWYN BAY were left shell-shocked as they saw a 3-0 lead disintegrate into a 4-3 defeat at home to Carlton Town.
A nightmare second half defensive performance threw away three points that had looked to be in the bag and dropped the side into the bottom six of the Unibond Divison One South.
Manager Gary Finley but the blame squarely on his defence.
"We just seemed to get caught all the time by the long straight ball. They were four bad goals and it was just bad defending all round," he said.
Colwyn Bay were 2-0 up at half-time with John Lawless nutmegging his fullback and crossing perfectly for Anthony Murt to score with a header after just eight minutes, and James Olsen put another great ball in to the box for Lewis Callaghan to head a second five minutes before the break.
When Neil Black ran onto a chipped pass to score Colwyn Bay's third two minutes into the second half it looked all over - and unfortuantely the players thought so as well.
They just switched off completely and Carlton suddenly found new belief as Marquin Smith scored with a close range header and Darryl Thomas ran clear of stationary defence to score a second 10 minutes later.
Colwyn Bay were unlucky when Martin Crowder was breaking clear on goal only for the referee to bring play for a free kick to Colwyn Bay in their own half for an inoccuous challenge on Olsen as he played the ball through, but Carlton were growing in strength all the time.
They twice went close to equalising before being awarded a disputed penalty for a tackle on Martin Ball by Paul Williams after the Colwyn Bay substitute fluffed a chance to clear, and in the second minute of added time the turn-around was complete as Aiden Brady broke down the left and outpaced a labouring Bay defence to fire home the winner.
I can't remember a Bay defence looking so vulnerable since the 5-0 FA Cup defeat at Barrow, and every time Carlton pumped the ball forward in that second half there seemed to be acres of space for their front men to run into and bare down on Jamie Speare's goal.
That must be a worry for the manager with two tough away games coming up at Cammell Laird on Boxing Day and Sheffield next Saturday, and with Kyle Amstrong away on holiday until the New Year and Steve Pope out of action after injuring his back in work.
Lee Spike, however, should be available again after shift work commitments last Saturday.
Colwyn Bay: Speare, Wynne, Boardman, Brandreth, Taylor, Callaghan (Walker 90mins), Crowder (Williams 65mins), Olsen, Black, Murt, Lawless (Wade 75mins).

MUCH better news for LLANDUDNO who came from 0-2 down to win 3-2 at Denbigh Town to go four points clear in second place in the Cymru Alliance and close the gap on leaders Prestatyn to 10 points with a game in hand.
Darren Cassidy and Ian Evans put Denbigh two goals up, but Joe Morgan and Jody Hamilton scored to put Llandudno level at half-time and Darren Jones got their winner midway through the second half.
In the Welsh Alliance Glan Conwy beat Amwlch Town 5-0 and Conwy United drew 2-2 with Llanrug, while Llanrwst United and Llandudno Junction had their games postponed.

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