DEFENSIVE lapses cost Soham Town Rangers as they went down 3-1 at home to Chesham United on Saturday. Despite holding their own for the opening 45minutes, Ian Benjamin s side looked vulnerable from set plays and were overcome in the second half as visitor

DEFENSIVE lapses cost Soham Town Rangers as they went down 3-1 at home to Chesham United on Saturday.

Despite holding their own for the opening 45minutes, Ian Benjamin's side looked vulnerable from set plays and were overcome in the second half as visitors Chesham capitalised.

The match started brightly with a number of chances falling to either side as the teams sought to test one another for weakness. An Aaron Turner cross in the opening forays was well met by Andy Furnell who was unlucky to see his effort tipped wide by Michael Underwood in the Chesham goal.

Chesham had a number of early chances also before a half cleared free-kick was gratefully collected by waiting Chesham striker Darrell Cox who duly slotted home to open the scoring. The goal lifted the visitors who settled into a spate of fine passing play which nearly saw the lead doubled five minutes short of half time when Adam Parker headed against the bar.

To their credit though, Soham maintained a staunch defence and having rode the worst of the Chesham attacks managed to prey on the visitors lack of concentration as, just a minute before half time, Paul Jones popped up to smash home an equaliser.

The visitors came out firing after the half time break and went close early on with goal scorer Jones turning last ditch defender as he cleared off the line for Soham. The home side were unable to hold out for long though, and Darrel Cox was once again on hand to poke home after a corner wasn't properly cleared by the home side.

As the game wore on Soham committed more and more men to the attack in their search for an equaliser but, in doing so, they exposed their defence to a fast breaking attack. Chesham made the most of this fact and on 66 minutes they broke from a Soham corner and slotted home to make it 3-1 courtesy of Phil Turner.

In the dying minutes Smith saw his cross-come-shot bounce back off the post to typify the absence of luck for the home side. The loss sees Benjamin's side remain in 11th place with 17 points so far this season.

Pic cap: Soham (in green) went 3-1 down at home on Saturday.

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Photo: RICHARD MARSHAM