AARON Cook thought his Saturday afternoon couldn't get much worse after Pompey were dumped out of the FA Cup by Saints.

But, unfortunately for the blue-blooded Salisbury City captain, there was more agony to follow at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium.

Just seven days after boosting their Ryman Premier survival hopes with a red-hot win at league leaders Yeading, the relegation-haunted Whites looked decidedly lukewarm again in a 2-0 home defeat by mid-table Chelmsford.

Both goals emanated from individual errors with Salisbury goalkeeper Kevin Sawyer losing his footing for the first and former Havant and Bashley defender Cook admitting responsibility for the second.

Cook confessed: "We should be playing a hell of a lot better than we are.

"Before the season started, we were talking about getting into the play-offs, but no one's been playing very consistently and team selection hasn't been very consistent, either.

"Things have been better since Nick manager Nick Holmes got back, but we're still capable of more.

"We were all over Chelmsford in the first half and should never have been 1-0 down at half-time, but Kev Sawyer said his feet went from under him for the goal.

"We didn't start the second half very brightly and I have to hold my hand up and say the second goal was my fault.

"It's hard to get other people to raise their game and tell them to cut out mistakes when I've made one myself."

Having tested former Havant & Waterlooville keeper Paul Nicholls in the very first minute through Matt Tubbs, Salisbury had their rhythm broken as the Chelmsford physio trotted on three times to treat injured players.

When the game finally settled, it was one of the wounded soldiers, Garry Cross, who pounced on the rebound after Sawyer had been caught off-balance, getting behind Craig Edwards's thumping shot.

The lively Tubbs deserved to equalise on 24 minutes when he cleverly brought the ball down and curled a half-volley just outside the near post.

He went closer still in the last minute of normal time when Steve Strong got on the end of Adam Wallace's cross from the right and, as the ball broke loose, Tubbs smashed it off the underside of the crossbar.

But Whites failed to recapture that momentum in the second half and boss Holmes admitted: "It annoyed me we started as badly as we did.

"In the first half, we played some quality football and I thought it was harsh that we went in a goal down.

"Unfortu-nately, I said 'well done' to the players, 'keep it up and you'll be fine.' But obviously being nice to them doesn't work!

"We create our own problems with the choices we make sometimes, particularly when we're defending.

"No disrespect, but we're not good enough football-wise to start doing what Premiership sides do.

"Our passing gets us into trouble. We've got to stick to playing a non-league game."

It was skipper Cook who surrendered possession in the 72nd minute, inviting Julian Edwards to hold him off and slide an angled drive into the far corner and effectively kill the match.

Ironically, it came at a time when Whites had just woken up after a lethargic start to the half, which could so easily have seen them punished by former Southend United midfielder Cross.

A chink of light appeared on the hour mark when Craig Davis's throw was flicked on by Cook and Tubbs headed just over. But, five minutes later, Tubbs exited on a stretcher with suspected knee ligament damage.

Frontman Adam Wallace did his best to compensate for Tubbs's absence, but he had a penalty appeal turned down and sent a header and a curling shot just wide.

The result leaves Salisbury fifth to bottom of what is still a very tight league, but they would surely need of a miracle now to make a late charge for the play-offs.

"I don't think we're good enough to compete with the top few sides on a regular basis," said Holmes, who had seen the writing on the wall in Tuesday's limp 2-0 Wiltshire Premier Shield defeat by Chippenham.

"Every team can compete occasionally, but it's noticeable that, after two league wins, we've had two losses.

"The character of the side was lacking when the going got tough in the second half, but there are no problems in the camp.

"The lads were distraught afterwards. It hurt them."