A brief glimmer of hope proved to be a false dawn for Star on Saturday.
The Islecroft side trailed 2-0 at half-time against Tranent after goals from Nicky Reid and Cammy Ross but David Cox pulled a goal back early in the second half to cut the deficit.
But any thoughts of rescuing a point were wiped out by a double from Euan Bauld.
Star boss, Eddie Warwick, said: “We scored for 2-1 and were right in the game for 10 minutes.
“We had a good spell, didn’t take a chance, then they’ve killed us with the corners.
“It was two free headers and it was too easy – it’s disappointing because at 2-1 we were right in it.
“It’s been like that when we’ve played against the top teams - we keep on making these mistakes and they’re punishing us.”
The result means Star are still bottom of the Lowland League with just six points and eight games left.
Edinburgh University are one point better off but have played a game more and have still to visit Islecroft.
Last weekend rounded off a particularly difficult run of games for Star where they have faced six of the top eight sides in the league.
Warwick said: “No one has really embarrassed us. We’ve been in games at certain spells.
“We should have beat Civil Service Strollers but got a point.
“If you’d said you’re going to get a point off one of the top six you’d probably take it but we should have got three.
“On another day we might have got nothing as Civil don’t lose many at home. We’ve had some positives had some negatives, got some performances and got a point out of the top six. We just need to move on.”
Star have no game this weekend – but any players expecting a weekend off can forget it.
Warwick added: “We’ll be doing extra training as the following Saturday we have a very difficult game against East Stirlingshire.
“I know their coaches, Sandy Clark and George Paterson very well as I’ve worked with both of them. I know how fit they’re getting their team and how much they’ve improved in terms of results.
“It’ll be a very difficult game so we need to keep training to be ready for that.
“We’re off this weekend then have East Stirlingshire, Celtic and Hearts in seven days. It’s ridiculous.”
