Chelmsford City 2 Tonbridge Angels 1

TONBRIDGE paid the full price for a 10-minute spell of sloppy defending as they fell to a second successive Ryman Premier League defeat.

Two goals in the space of four second half minutes from Julian Edwards gave resurgent Chelmsford the points, though a late strike from Jay May set up a tense finale.

With the Kent side attempting to kickstart their push for survival, player-boss Tony Dolby opted to play four strikers against Chelmsford with Luke Piscina and Steve Sodje operating on the flanks with Leroy Huggins and Brendon Cass through the middle.

The ploy appeared to be paying dividends as the visitors edged the opening 45 minutes, though neither side were able to create any clear cut chances.

Cass and Huggins came closest to testing the home keeper in the first period, while for Chelmsford, Helder Valdez brought a fine save from the in-form Jamie Turner with a fizzing low drive.

The match was won within seven minutes of the restart as individual errors led to Julian Edwards sealing the three points, first stealing in to stroke the ball past Turner from close range (48) then being allowed too much space in the Angels area and crashing the ball home for 2-0 (52), much to manager Tony Dolby’s disgust.

He said: "We stressed to the players the importance of keeping it tight in the first 10 or 15 minutes when they would come at us and we didn’t do it. You can coach people and work out tactics but if the players don’t do it on the pitch, you’re not going to get results at this level.

"It’s incredibly frustrating because we played so well for large parts of the game only to throw it away with 10 minutes of sloppy defending."

The Angels boss repeated his belief there will still be Ryman Premier League football at Longmead next season, insisting any players not showing full committment to the cause will be dealt with accordingly.

He said: "I’d like to think the belief is still in the squad that we can survive. If I see that dwindling in anyone, then players will go. I’m not about to give up the ghost and if we are going to go down, we’ll go down fighting."