It started with some lightweight sparring and ended in a brawl but Liam Scopes defended his Hadleigh team after they went down 1-0 at home to Ipswich Wanderers.

Scopes, along with Ben Elliott is part of the management duo stepping up while Steve Holder recovers from illness, and felt they played well enough to take their unbeaten home run to 10 games.

Instead Wanderers kept their unbeaten run of league away games going through superbly taken Nathan Read winner when he sprinted from the halfway line and finish well past recent signing George Bugg in goal.

Ben Elliott and Liam Scopes (Picture: Ian Evans/Nub News)

Although Hadleigh had some joy down their wide areas from Angus Mills and Liam Wales, they failed to grab the initiative and Ipswich took control of the game in the second half when Darren Mills replaced Joel Glover.

Hadleigh squandered a number of chances with Jack Baker, Max Dinning, Harry Wales and Jordan Patrick all off target, while Wanderers keeper Jack Spurling twice tipped efforts from Ethan Mayhew over the bar.

Scopes admitted he felt hard done by and said: "We were much better team first half, controlled the game with lots of energy, had chances and played the way we wanted the team to play.

Jack Baker had an off day in front of goal (Picture: Ian Evans/Nub News)

"'We didn't take those chances and second half Ipswich's experience showed and we were a little naive for their goal the way we set up.

"On reflection we feel hard done by to come away with nothing, but that's football."

"On balance we have played well and if we play like that every week we will win far more than we will lose."

Scopes felt Hadleigh lacked composure in front of goal and bemoaned the loss of striker Owen Betts who is in Thailand and, an injury to Jordan Patrick added to their woes.

"We started with three midfielders in the attacking areas, which when you get those half chances can make a difference," said Scopes.

"If we had come in at half-time 3-0 up no-one could have companied but that has been the story of the past coupe of weeks when we have dropped points but had enough chances to win games.

"That happens in football when you have little patches where things don't go your way but we will come through that."

Two red cards in brawl after the whistle (Picture: Ian Evans/Nub News)

A hefty challenge by Liam Wales on the final whistle sparked a mass brawl and led to him being yellow carded.

United's Ethan Clarke and Wanderers Matt Paine were both red-carded for violent conduct after the melee died down by referee Liam Chinery.

Scopes will be without Clarke for a couple of games and added: "It is a local derby, lots of players that have played for each club, it happens, lots of handbags. We will miss Ethan but we have good squad to be able to cope with this."

Unsavoury finale (Picture: Ian Evans/Nub News)

He said: "Although we have dropped points we have been playing well and I'm sure we can get back on another good run.

"We have set up a way we want to play, we try and make it so if anyone is missing we can carry that through on match day.

"We miss Steve, as we would anyone on match day, the manager, captain top scorer."

Ethan Mayhew denied (Picture: Ian Evans/Nub News)