Beaconsfield Town endured another blank away day with a 2-1 loss to Poole Town in the Southern League Premier Division.

It was not really a surprise when new signing from Hayes and Yeading, debutant keeper Charlie Burns’ first duty as a Ram was picking a sixth minute Will Spetch header out of his net. It was Poole’s first real attack of note despite early pressure but arrived via a moment of real quality as Luke Roberts delivered a pinpoint cross to the far post where Spetch climbed above Brendan Matthew and powered his header home.

It was skipper Luke Neville who had Beaconsfield’s first clear chance of the afternoon when he rose to meet a Charlie Losasso flighted free kick beyond the far post but saw his goal bound effort strike the back of Matthew’s head and ricochet to safety.

Louis Stead came closest to levelling the scores on the quarter hour when home keeper Luke Cairney scuffed a clearance from outside his box. The ball fell to Stead 40 yards out, with the keeper sprinting to regain his ground, he struck a low goal bound effort into the wind which seemed to be all over the equaliser but a combination of wind drawing the ball into the centre of goal and Cairney’s hustle saw him hook the ball away with a desperate goal line lunge.

Despite the disjointed start Beaconsfield found more rhythm as the game progressed and ended the half with more coherence and cohesion in their passing but without any further alarms for Cairney.

The pressure bore fruit in the 51st minute. Dan Brown, increasingly influential in midfield, fed Charlie Losasso on the left. He drove in towards goal and saw a dipping cross shot cannon off Jack Dickson’s back and away for the Rams first corner. Losasso delivered the corner to the centre of the goal eight yards out where Jordan AJ Ajanlekoko applied the merest flick and Brendan Matthew with his back to goal steered a right foot overhead kick into the net.

Now firmly in the ascendancy, Beaconsfield began to press for more goals but the home side remained dangerous on the break through Constable and Scrimshaw who was linking with the attack and making darting runs as a willing chaser of flicks and lay-offs.

One such lead to the afternoon's ultimately decisive and most controversial moment. A quick ball out of defence was nudged on by Constable bypassing a lunging Neville and Scrimshaw was away on goal, pursued by covering Jerome Ecclestone who managed to catch the onrushing attacker and position himself to slide in and turn the ball away for a corner.

Scrimshaw went down in a heap but the linesman made no indication. Referee Mr Underhay was conservatively 40 yards behind play at this point but adjudged that the centre half had played the ball only after playing the man. He was clearly too far away and on the wrong side because it was all too apparent that Ecclestone took the ball cleanly then his momentum carried him into Scrimshaw.

Poole then got a penalty. Constable stepped up and stroked home the penalty though Burns will feel unlucky as he guessed correctly and got a hand to the spot kick but was unable to keep it out.

B

The introduction of Gogo and Minhas from the subs bench introduced late spark and the pair combined well with Charlie Losasso whose quick feet released Gogo to cross for Matthew to slot home from 10 yards in the 91st minute but Thomas was adjudged to have been narrowly offside when he was played in.

The remaining five or so minutes petered out as Poole ran down the clock and emerged victorious.

Beaconsfield now face Walton Casuals at home on Saturday (3pm).