Brightlingsea Regent Manager Tom Rothery would have been left scratching his head after this rather subdued and lacklustre performance from his team, especially following the fantastic away day victory just fours days previously at Folkestone.

One of Regents lowest league crowds in recent memory witnessed the R’s suffer a one nil defeat to a Potter Bar side that was well drilled and unfussy in their approach to this game.

Brightlingsea did start well enough, although lacking some of the tempo and high pressing seen the previous Saturday they had plenty of possession but just lacked a little bit of quality when delivering a final ball.

Too many times a through ball was over hit or mistimed enabling a well organised Scholars defence to clean up and launch a counter attack.

However despite their frustrations in the final third it was Regent who had the best chance of the half. Jake Clowsley got in behind the Potters Bar defence latching onto one of the better passes forward. As he took it in his stride and with the goal at his mercy it seemed a mere formality that he would put the home side one nil up. Unfortunately for Clowsley and the few home fans watching he managed to miss the target altogether.

A massive let off for the visitors and one they would capitalise on shortly before the half time whistle when Dernell Wynter made no mistake with his own scoring opportunity. 1- 0 Potters Bar.

The second half saw Potter Bar show much more belief going forward and with Brightlingsea never really getting out of first gear the visitors spent more time in and around the R’s box.

Regent were sitting deeper and deeper and struggling to get any kind of momentum or foothold in the half. When they did get the ball forward they seemed short on ideas and barely troubled the Scholars defence.

Potters Bar were doing just enough to hold onto their lead without having to really stretch themselves and were able to see the game out fairly comfortably.

In truth this was far from a great footballing spectacle. Neither goalkeeper was called into action much and in a game of few chances and little quality the visitors took theirs.

Gavin Aplin