It was another disappointing night for FC Isle of Man on Saturday as they succumbed to their fourth straight loss since the turn of the year.

The game proved to be a bitty, stop/start affair against fellow strugglers Squires Gate at the Bowl.

The visitors were well worth their victory, albeit somewhat flattered by the 4-1 scoreline, and the Ravens were to be further plagued by another spate of injuries during the contest.

Pre-game, hopes were high for an uplift in fortunes as interim manager Paul Jones was bolstered with the return to the squad of Sean Doyle and Michael Williams.

Squires Gate came into the game one place below the hosts, having struggled of late to find any positive results and had not won a league match since early November.

But if the Blues lacked confidence, they certainly didn’t show it and they started the game on the front foot, forcing a first-minute (although somewhat dubious) corner which the Ravens initially defended well but couldn’t clear sufficiently, ultimately giving away a free-kick on the right-hand side of the area.

Again, the hosts failed to clear the set-piece and a loose ball dropped onto the edge of the box for Squires Gate’s Nathan Cliffe to swivel and drive a right-foot shot across goal beyond Ben Wilkinson in the hosts’ goal for an early lead.

The response from the Ravens was positive and they were unlucky not to equalise immediately when Ste Whitley’s far-post header from Jacob Crook’s left-wing cross was cleared off the line.

For 10 minutes the home side kept the visitors penned in their own half, but the Blues settled again and forced Wilkinson into two fine saves.

Then on the quarter-hour mark, out of nothing, a bit of magic was created from Ravens’ magician, Whitley.

Pouncing on a loose Squires Gate pass five yards inside his own half, Whitley turned, checked and, noting the position of the visitors’ goalkeeper, proceeded to hit a superb effort over the keeper’s head which nestled nicely in the back of the net for the equaliser. David Beckham would have been proud of it.

At this point, the Ravens faithful probably expected the hosts to gain the upperhand but it was the visitors who continued to look the more dangerous.

Firstly through a quick counter-attack which again Wilkinson saved away to his left. Then, following another failure to sufficiently clear a set-piece (although the hosts were adamant that Tiernan Garvey was fouled) Squires Gate recycled the ball quickly to the right flank and caught the hosts all out of shape.

The ensuing pin-point cross was expertly headed home by Callum Sandle to put the Blues ahead once more.

Just minutes later it was 3-1. The hosts’ attempts to play offside failed, the visitors pounced quickly and, following a neat exchange of passes, Cliffe scored his second goal of the game.

Following Whitley’s goal, the Ravens had been poor in possession, often giving the ball away cheaply and the visitors had proved ruthless, but despite being two goals behind, the hosts re-galvanised and came back to life.

Crook played some decent balls into the willing runs of Doyle, while Eoghain Sherrard started to terrorise the visiting left-back with his pace and on 33 minutes captain Frank Jones very nearly pulled a goal-back, stealing in at the back post to meet Crook’s expert centre but smashed a ferocious shot just wide of the far post.

Only two minutes later though, any momentum the hosts were building was cruelly curtailed. Talismanic striker Doyle chased another through ball into the left channel, only to pull up and slump to the ground in pain.

A quick check from the Ravens physio proved Doyle couldn’t continue and he was replaced by Tom Creer. It has been a nightmare season for Doyle: making his first appearance since the opening day, it was brutal luck to again be hurt so soon into his comeback.

Five minutes later and more injury woes for a returning player. Ryan Burns, making only his second appearance of the season, fell to the ground in agony as he changed direction to cover a ball in behind. He was replaced by Jack McVey.

While the first half-hour of the contest had been relatively exciting, the last 15 minutes of the half was blighted by stoppages not just through those injuries but through some fussy refereeing which unfortunately slowed the flow of what had been an open game to that point.

At half-time, manager Jones made his third substitution, this being a tactical change as Kyle Watson replaced Ronan McDonnell in the midfield.

The hosts started the second period on the front foot and with Frank Jones now being the spearhead up front in replacement of Doyle, the Ravens were a little better in possession as they bossed the first 20 minutes in which the visitors struggled to get out of their half.

Three times Jones caused mayhem in the visiting back line with his direct running forcing the Squires Gate defence to frequently back pedal.

On one occasion breaking through, he seemed to be barged off the ball for what looked like a surefire penalty but the referee waved it away.

On another occasion Jones chased down a long ball with a Blues defender, beating his opponent on the edge of the box, only to toe poke narrowly wide of the right-hand post. In between, Jones had seen his back-post header from Sherrard’s superb cross go just over the bar.

When Alex Maitland’s header from Whitley’s corner again sailed just over on the hour, it seemed only a matter of time before the Ravens would cut the deficit.

But the game thereafter reverted to a similar vein of the last 15 minutes of the opening period and was blighted with stoppage after stoppage and any flow the hosts had built up was lost, and the team struggled to replicate the same intensity as the opening moments of the half.

There were some half-promising forays down either flanks but clear-cut chances were proving hard to create, although a quick Whitley break with a quarter of an hour remaining resulted in a corner, which subsequently caused some mayhem in the Blues defence before Maitland fired just wide of the left-hand post.

Thereafter though, the game continued to be afflicted by stoppages and delays. There were a couple of flare-ups between both sets of players which resulted in a spate of yellow cards on both sides and in the final minute of normal time, a red card for Squires Gate’s Bartram-Conway.

To add insult to Ravens’ injury the visitors scored a fourth goal in the fifth minute of stoppage time after Ryan Moore - who was excellent throughout - pounced on some indecision at the back to notch another for his team so inflict a fourth defeat on the bounce for FC Isle of Man.

l The Ravens are next back in action this weekend when they travel to Kendal Town on Saturday afternoon, kicking off at 1pm.