DURHAM City dropped into the bottom half of the table after crashing to a 3-1 home defeat against Witton Albion.

The pain continued for Dickie Ord’s men as they suffered their fourth defeat in their last five league games, which left them in 12th place in the Evo-Stik First Division North while Witton climbed to fourth.

Anthony Sheehan put the visitors ahead in four minutes, latching onto a throughball from Danny Andrews before firing past Lewis Graham.

And Sheehan almost doubled Witton’s lead just after the quarter-hour mark, but his shot went just the wrong side of the post.

City struggled to make any kind of impact in the first half, with their best chances falling to Andrew Stephenson and Amar Purewal, but both efforts were easily snuffed out by Witton goalkeeper Matt Cooper.

In the second period, Sheehan was denied by Graham, then at the other end sub Jack Pounder hit the post with a header from a Stephenson free-kick.

Witton went two goals up four minutes from time when Alex Titchiner broke clear of the Durham defence and squeezed the ball between Graham and his near post.

Amar Purewal gave City hope of salvaging something from the game two minutes later when he pulled a goal back, heading home from another Stephenson free-kick.

But those hopes were extinguished in injury-time when substitute Josh Home-Jackson was caught in possession by Titchiner, and he raced through on goal, rounded Graham and applied the finishing touch.

DURHAM CITY: L Graham, Madden, Shaw, Davis (Graham), Wilkinson, Arjun Purewal, Greulich-Smith (Pounder), Stephenson, Dowson, Amar Purewal, Cutts (Home-Jackson)

WITTON ALBION: Cooper, Gardiner (Woolley), Wood, Harrison, Booth, Ennion, Hancock, Sheehan, Buchan (Schofield), Titchiner, Andrews

Referee: D Hulme