Brentwood Town suffer another grim away defeat, with their Ryman Premier survival task made tougher after they were narrowly beaten 1-0 at Leatherhead.
Chris Kinnear’s first half strike was the only goal that separated the two sides despite Leatherhead’s dominance throughout the majority of the game.
‘The Blues’ remain 21st in the table and seven points adrift of safety and with scoring only one goal in their last five games, George Borg is still without a win as Town manager.
Borg made one change to his side that drew away at Met Police last week, as Shad Ngandu comes in for Ritchie Jones who suffered a knee injury last week.
Within the opening few seconds of the game Brentwood’s Leon Gordon was already in the book for a strong tackle on Paul Walsh.
Brentwood had the first opportunity 12 minutes in, as Mitch Hahn on the opposite wing kept the ball in-play out wide. He cut it back for Shad Ngandu whose cross was just overhit for Liam Hope.
The home side struck early, as Brentwood did not close down Leatherhead’s men so Kinnear’s shot from just outside the box squirmed its way in off the inside of the post.
Leatherhead almost doubled their lead from a floating free-kick, which was met by the new assistant manager Steve Watt but came off the top of the crossbar.
‘The Tanners’ had another chance to extend their advantage, as Alex Brown found space inside the box but his shot went wide of the target.
In the second half, Leatherhead continued their dominance with another shot from Brown which was deflected off a Brentwood defender to go wide.
From the resulting corner which Kieran Huches-Mason whipped in, was headed again by Watt into the ground and Martyn Guest had to pull off a smart save – to deny the hosts.
Brentwood had sparse opportunity, as Hogan’s free-kick was whipped in low for Jamie Guy to hold up and on the turn his shot was well-held by Captain Louis Wells.
Leatherhead thought they had practically sealed the three points, as a whipped in ball to the far post was almost put in by Phil Anderson but for Guest to claw it off the line.
The home side had a chance to wrap it up in injury time, as Huches-Mason went on the counter-attack for the home side but was palmed away by Guest.
Brentwood threw everything at Leatherhead even resorting to Guest going forward but could not break down ‘The Tanners’, as their revival to get out the relegation zone gets tougher.
Leatherhead Lineup: 1 Louis Wells ©, 2 Adam Cash, 3 Adam Green, 4 Paul Semakula, 5 Steve Watt, 6 Jerry Nnamani, 7 Alex Brown (90), 8 Chris Kinnear, 9 Paul Walsh (59), 10 Kieran Huches-Mason, 11 Kaka Dembele (74)
Substitutes: 12 Tomi Adeloye (59), 14 Josh Callacher, 15 Ryan Mahal (74), 16 Matt Smart (90), 17 Stephen Okoh
Brentwood Town Lineup: 1 Martyn Guest, 2 Leon Gordon, 3 Louis Baucutt, 4 Martyn Stokes ©, 5 Phil Anderson, 6 Nicky Symons, 7 Shad Ngandu (73), 8 Connor Hogan, 9 Liam Hope (45), 19 Jamie Guy, 11 Mitch Hahn (63)
Substitutes: 12 Sherwin Stanley (45), 14 Ryan O’Rawe, 15 Connor Witherspoon, 16 Dwade James (63), 17 Arthur Rodgers (73)
Attendance: 238
