The Rocks suffered a late capitulation and were defeated 4-1 at the Dripping Pan on Tuesday in the Isthmian premier division encounter.

It proved to be a cruel conclusion for the visitors after a dogged display that saw them drawing 1-1 with just three minutes of normal time remaining.

But three quick fire goals from the hosts in a late blitz condemned Blake’s men to defeat when it looked as if they might have earned a point and climbed off the bottom of the table.

Gianluca Botti gave the hosts the advantage after just one minute but Bognor bounced back after 10 minutes when Jasper Mather cashed in on a mistake by home keeper Toby Bull to score into an empty net and make it 1-1.

The visitors then enjoyed the better of the half arguably, gaining confidence from their display and on the back of a 1-0 win at Bowers & Pitsea on Saturday.

Blake’s men should have taken the lead on 70 minutes but Mather’s shot was cleared off the line and then substitute Doug Tuck agonisingly hit the post.

But Bognor dug in and it looked for all the world they would come away with a valuable point that would have taken them off the bottom of the table.

But three late goals — scored by Matt Warren, Botti again and Danny Bassett — condemned Bognor to defeat.

And Blake said: “Anyone who ever doubts that football can be a cruel game should think again. It looked as if we were coming away from the Dripping Pan with what I thought would have been a well-deserved point after a battling display and that would have provided us with a confidence boost coming into the Carshalton game. Against Lewes we did so many good things and threw it all away at the end but we must take the positives from the game, it’s essential.

“We went into the game having won all three points on the road at Bowers & Pitsea on the Saturday with a thoroughly deserved 1-0 win.

“I thought we were the better side in the first half against Lewes. We had a good shape, the players were well up for it and we were bright on the ball. Obviously you don’t think that after 30 seconds you are going to be 1-0 down — we have conceded far too early too often this campaign — but we got our goal and kicked on from there.

“And from that point we never looked in danger of not being in the contest. In the second half, we had to change personnel for injury reasons and we lost a little bit of impetus because of that but nonetheless we were very much in the game and had luck smiled on us, we could easily have won it.

“Mather had a shot cleared off the line with about 20 minutes to go and shortly afterwards substitute Doug Tuck hit the post and the ball bounced to safety. If either of those efforts go in, I think I’m confident enough to say that we win the game. But they didn’t and that’s football.

“What happened next was frankly catastrophic and a disaster for our ambition to pull away from our position at the bottom of the league. To my mind we didn’t show enough desire and heart in the last moments of that game and Lewes probably couldn’t believe their luck as they hit three goals.

“If anyone would’ve come into that ground to watch the game and been told with three minutes of normal time remaining that we would have conceded three goals they would never have believed it but that’s exactly what happened.

“Our defending wasn’t tight enough and I have to say we lacked a little bit of heart in our attempts to defy the home side’s desire to grab the win. Those final few moments probably sum up our season, and probably tell you why we are anchored to the foot of the table.”

Bognor Regis Town: 1 Ryan Hall,
2 Spencer Spurway, 3 Hayden Gale,
4 Calvin Davies (C), 5 Tommy Block
6 Amadou Jallow, 7 Harvey Whyte (Tommy-Lee Higgs 63′), 8 Matt Burgess (Doug Tuck 75′), 9 Dan Gifford, 10 Jasper Mather,
11 Preston Woolston (Billie Clark 81′). Subs: 12 Tommy-Lee Higgs, 14 Doug Tuck,
15 Tyler Edmondson, 16 Billie Clark,
17 Toby Kingswell.