A somewhat bemused Steve Holder admitted he found Hadleigh's 2-0 home to loss to Dereham Town tough to take.

Holder's Hadleigh had rattled the cross bar three times in the first half hour, through Tom Warren, along with Lloyd and Ethan Clarke.

Two good teams went toe to toe with some neat football from both sides but all the real action came in the final five minutes.

The match looked to be heading towards a nil-nil, which would have been fair enough for both sides,

However, Magpies substitute Charlie Clarke took advantage of sloppy defending to strike twice in as many minutes at the end of the 90.

Holder said: "We hit the bar three times, played all the football as we usually do and it was about fine margins in the first half.

"Second half we did not create very much but then to concede two sloppy goals late on was hard to take."

Holder's bewilderment was compounded after a sending off, and a mass push and shove session, which saw both managers cautioned, and virtually all the players rushing to the dressing room area five minutes before the referee Richard Baker called for time.

Hadleigh captain Jack Baker, in between Dereham's Ben Lewis (3) and Chris Skipper before sending off (Picture: Nub News)

The incident started when left back Lewis clashed with Hadleigh skipper Jack Baker off the ball. The pair tangled at free kick and the ref broke both.

Despite being told by his teammates to keep his head, Lewis smashed into Baker at a high ball and the referee has no choice but to show a second yellow, and the red.

Lewis then reacted badly to comments as he went towards the dressing room and lashed out at the Hadleigh coach and bystanders. That sparked a mass exodus of the Dereham bench, and players on the pitch as they bundled into the dressing room area.

Once order was restored the nastiness dissipated and the final minutes settled with Hadleigh still playing the better football and pushing for a consolation.

Holder said: Their number three got send off for an absolutely stupid challenge then shoved me on his way off, somehow I have ended up getting booked. I don't know what the ref has seen and it put a bit of a dampener on what was actually quite a good game.

"Hopefully we will just dust ourselves down and go again next week."

Both clubs are likely to be reported to the Thurlow Nunn League for failing to control their players.

The loss of Liam Wales to a knee injury after just quarter of an hour didn't help Hadleigh that looked the better side in the first half but did not make that all important breakthrough.

"Liam has been playing well, is our top goal scorer so he is a miss.

"His knee popped when he went to kick the ball bu we will assess him during the week.

"We have a decent squad so we should have enough to cover."

The Brettsiders go to Harleston next Saturday, then entertain Woodbridge the following week at Millfield.