Cranbrook suffered their first league defeat at their Cranbrook Education Campus home when beaten 3-2 by Culm United.

The final score suggests a 'close encounter' and had Cranbrook not been so slow in finding their rhythm then they surely would have been celebrating a third straight win at the Cranberry Farm Inn on Saturday evening!

There was an element of good fortune about the visitors' opening goal - a deflected shot that looped up and over the Cranbrook glovesman. Soon after, a goal that will stand aside many contenders for 'Cranbrook Education Campus Goal of the Season' - an unstoppable 25-yard strike - left Cranbrook two goals down at half-time.

Things got worse at the start of the second half when they fell three down and it was not until the start of the final 30 minutes that the 'real' Cranbrook decided to make a show and a neat finish from substitute Tre Davey halved the deficit before Paddy O'Loughlin and Jordan Wilkinson produced a neat exchange leading to the former making it 3-2.

However, that was as good as it got for Cranbrook, leaving manager Jon Martin to lament: "It was disappointing as we didn't do a lot wrong in the game. They had four shots on target and scored three times!

"That said, we simply cannot afford to give the opposition a three-goal start and expect to win matches."