Soham Town Rangers were forced to rue a host of missed opportunites and a Ross Paterson red card after they suffered their first league defeat in five games at the hands of Thamesmead Town.

The Greens travelled to Kent on a run of three Ryman League Division One North victories, but a brace from Theo Fairweather-Johnson and a Harrison Carnegie strike fired the hosts to a 3-0 victory.

Cambridge United loanees Dylan Williams and Sam McDermit made their first starts for the Greens, but McDermit was soon picking the ball out of his net after Fairweather-Johnson rose and headed home in the 21st minute.

Ryan Sharman, who was Soham’s goalscoring hero in their 1-0 victory over AFC Hornchurch last week came close to grabbing an equaliser when he met a Salim Relizani free kick in the air, but couldn’t control his effort and it flew over the Thamesmead bar.

Disaster struck for the visitors six minutes after the restart when Ross Paterson was shown a straight red card for tripping Gaz Dauti as he shaped to shoot.

Despite being a man down, Soham rallied, and came within inches of netting an equaliser when Simon Swinton capitalised on some slack Thamesemead defending to round the goalkeeper, only to fire into the side netting with the goal at his mercy.

Relizani then stung the palms of Andy Walker in the Thamesmead goal with a rasping 20-yard drive, and Swinton turned another shot wide of the post as Soham searched for a late leveller.

Soham’s hopes of salvaging a point were dashed in the 87th minute, when Carnegie found himself in space in the Greens’ box and fired low past McDermit.

Rangers’ woes were then compounded a minute later when Fairweather-Johnson raced through and slotted home at the second attempt after McDermit had parried his initial effort.

Soham’s first defeat since late January sees them stay in 15th place in the league and Robbie Nightingale and Dave Theobald’s men will look to bounce back when they take a trip to London to face promotion candidates Cray Wanderers on Saturday afternoon (3pm).