Off the back of a second successive draw in a row against Tilbury, Ryan Salter made five changes to the starting eleven, with Emmanuel Zion, goalkeeper Charlie Turner, Joe Watson, Travis Richards and Marley Andrews entering the starting eleven.

On a sunny Halloween afternoon at the Techsoc.com stadium, in front of a supposed 350 attendance, Hashtag United avoided an early fright, dealing with Regent's corner confidently.

Regent claimed the opening close-effort, through a wide-cross, which led to pinball in the box, but Regent were unable to find the conviction to poke it past Joseph Whitney in the Hashtag net.

Despite the early spell of pressure, the R's went behind in the 15th minute through Ellis Devereux's goal. A mistimed attempt at a header allowed Hashtag's winger to shoot from the right-hand edge of the penalty area, and although Charlie Turner saved the initial effort, Ellis Devereux was in the right place at the right time and broke the deadlock from close range.

Hashtag tried their luck again a few minutes later. A short corner routine found Ben Wells in acres of space outside of the box, giving plenty of time for him to shoot from distance, however, had way too much height to challenge Charlie Turner.

Regent responded with a set-piece opportunity of their own, with a long-throw lobbed into the box, before finding a green shirt on the edge of the box, whose volley was expertly saved by the Hashtag goalkeeper.

Recycling their previous short-corner routine from before once again, Hashtag's effort mirrored the first, going far too high and wide to threaten another goal. Swiftly on from this, the referee blew for half-time.

Regent had two decent attempts at an equaliser just after the break. Firstly, a low driven cross went inches away from finding the necessary contact, and then, Joe Watson's fierce shot after a high-quality dribble was parried away for a corner by Joseph Whitney.

Hashtag unfortunately doubled their tally in the 61st minute through Praise Ogbebor. The Hashtag United number twenty latched onto the end of a goal kick, controversially outjumping the Regent defender, to run through one-on-one and beat the R's goalkeeper, with the referee ignoring any complaints.

Things got even worse for Regent. After a free-kick that likely should have gone the opposite way, Hashtag's low driven cross took numerous deflections, with the last off Joe Debell being the most crucial, as it evaded the Regent defence completely to wrap up a three-goal advantage for the hosts.

Both sides concluded the game with numerous attempts, but none that particularly threatened adding to the scoreline. Although, there was some late controversy, as hashtag were reduced to ten men, as substitute Bilal Sayoud saw red in the 85th minute, but had minimal impact on the course of the final few minutes.

Brightlingsea Regent's next fixture is against Essex rivals Bowers & Pitsea in the Velocity Cup on Tuesday.