A DISASTROUS first half performance cost Soham dearly as they were soundly beaten by Brentwood Town on Tuesday.

Soham Town Rangers 3

Brentwood Town 0

The Greens shipped two goals in a lacklustre first half performance and, despite dominating large parts of the second period, they had given themselves too much to do to get back in the game.

The loss, Soham’s third this season, sees them slip to 16th in the Ryman Division One North, with the visit of strugglers Potters Bar Town to come on Saturday.

Dan Cotton produced the first real chance of the match after seven minutes, but he shanked high and wide on the angle when well placed in the Brentwood box.

After Soham’s initial flurry, the visitors quickly assumed control and peppered Dan Bircham’s goal with strikes from range, drawing several top saves from the Greens custodian.

Cotton had a good chance again on 23 minutes after being played in by Matt Robinson but his low shot was deflected for a corner by a defender.

Soham fell behind less than a minute later as Dean Green caught the defence by surprise, turning and striking on the edge of the box past Bircham.

Matters quickly worsened for Soham as a failed attempt to employ the offside trap left Ryan Doyle with the simplest of tasks to finish past a hopelessly exposed Bircham.

The Greens keeper produced two outstanding point blank saves in first half injury time to keep the score at 2-0 going into the break.

Soham emerged a changed side after the break and started with the hunger and drive that was desperately lacking the first half.

They should have pulled a goal back less than two minutes into the half as David Cobb crossed low for Simpson and Robinson only for the duo to miss the ball with the goal begging.

Soham continued to dictate the play for the next half-an-hour and, though they went close on a number of occasions, they were unable to make their dominance pay.

Substitute Richard Gammon had a glorious chance to pull a goal back with 10 minutes remaining but he volleyed Michael Simpson’s cross over the bar from eight yards.

Brentwood’s Luke Croll sealed the win five minutes from time with a powerful header.