TORPOINT Athletic spectacularly threw away the opportunity to clinch automatic promotion to Southern League Division One South on Tuesday night when they disintegrated against fourth from bottom Wellington at The Mill.

Unbeaten at home all season with 15 successive victories behind them, and needing a win to go up, they were well beaten in front of their biggest crowd this century, 623.

Defeat confirmed Barnstaple Town as champions by one point and confined Torpoint to a play-off against Sidmouth Town on Saturday. Back at The Mill. 3pm.

Quite how managers Dean Cardew and Karl Curtis pick their players off the floor after such a catastrophic collapse only they will know.

Nobody saw this result coming. Torpoint’s strength this season, particularly at home, has been their defence. Newquay put three past them but no other team had managed more than one goal.

But Wellington, playing with a freedom which comes with having no pressure, were 2-0 ahead inside the opening 20 minutes and stunned the big crowd into silence by making it 3-0 just before half-time.

‘Mountain to climb’ didn’t quite describe the task ahead for Torpoint in the second half, but any hope of a miraculous comeback were ended just before the hour by Wellington’s fourth goal.

Gary Hird reduced the arrears soon after, but for all their pressure in the last 20 minutes, they rarely looked like making it a contest.

Cardew said: “I’m obviously absolutely gutted with the result last night, with being so close to winning the league.

“I think it’s harder under those circumstances because if you’d offered me second place at the start of the season I’d have bitten your hand off, or if we won last night to clinch second it would have been seen as an achievement.

“So we have to strip everything back and see it as exactly that. The lads have put in an incredible shift all season in a really competitive league to finish in a very creditable position, and I’m extremely proud of every single one of them.

“I want to say congratulations to Barnstaple on winning the league, but we have to dust ourselves down now and try to go again in the play-off semi-final on Saturday.”

With excited anticipation around the ground before kick-off, the opening minutes were scrappy and tense with both sides taking time to settle. But the visitors scored from their first attack in the 15th minute.

Charlie Shearer broke from the halfway line and his mazy run took him past several Torpoint players to the edge of the penalty area before he switched the ball to the left to Oscar Albano, scorer of Wellington’s winner at St Blazey on Saturday.

He cut in onto his right foot and curled a beautiful shot over Ryan Rickard into the far corner of the net.

One goal didn’t appear to concern Torpoint too much, but the alarm bells were definitely ringing when Wellington made it 2-0 in the 19th minute from Josh Baker’s close range header.

And it took until the 37th minute for the Point to have a shot on target, with Curtis Damerell’s curling shot being punched clear from under the bar by keeper Andy Collings.

But it proved to be a false dawn because two minutes before the break Freddie Chapman tripped Baker and James De Selincourt converted the resulting penalty to stretch the visitors’ lead to 3-0.

Torpoint introduced striker Rikki Shepherd at the start of the second half as they searched for an early goal, but their hopes were effectively shattered when Baker made it 4-0 after 59 minutes, pouncing when a corner was only half cleared.

Four minutes later Hird scrambled the ball over the line from Elliott Crawford’s pass to reduce the arrears, but there was never the feeling that it was the start of a fightback.

They dominated possession and tried everything, but Wellington defended brilliantly and might have added a further goal themselves late on.

All in all a night to forget for Torpoint.

TORPOINT ATHLETIC: Ryan Rickard; Dave Barker, Freddie Chapman, Owen Haslam (James Rowe, 70), Callum O’Brien (Joe Rapson, 67), Elliott Crawford (capt), Sam Pearson (Rikki Shepherd, 46), Tom Payne (Darren Hicks, 68), Curtis Damerell (Sam Hepworth, 83), Gary Hird, Callum Martindale.

Goal: Gary Hird (63).

WELLINGTON: Andy Collings; Charlie Shearer, Alex Cherry (Harry Chetland, 85), Jordan Higman, Mark Cornish, Glen Wright, James De Selincourt (Daniel Conway, 90+1), Sam Towler, Josh Baker, Finley Newell, Oscar Albano. Sub not used: Rob Hall (gk).

Goals: Oscar Albano (15), Josh Baker 2 (19, 59), James De Selincourt (43 pen).

Yellow card: Charlie Shearer (27).

Referee: Ross Wilcox.

Attendance: 623.

Man-of-the-match: Josh Baker (Wellington).