BILLERICAY Town suffered their first setback of the National League South season after falling to a 2-0 defeat at Chippenham Town.

Goals from Luke Hopper and Nat Jarvis ensured Billericay would not return to south Essex with a third consecutive victory.

The clash also saw Billericay’s Tambeson Eyong shown a straight red card and Matt Rhead miss a penalty.

And boss Harry Wheeler admitted a tough start to the encounter gave his side a mountain to climb.

Wheeler said: “It’s disappointing to lose any game.

“It wasn’t the best start. If you keep a clean sheet then the minimum you’ll come away with is at least a point.

“But we gave away a penalty after four minutes and got someone sent off after that.

“You don’t want that start and it was really tough for us.

“We were the better side in the second half and we pushed for a leveller.

“I said we’d get one chance and that hit the bar and bounced off the line.

“They scored a second goal on the break and that happens a lot in football because we threw everyone forward.

“It’s disappointing but the penalty and going down to 10 men was a big part of the result.”

Hopper converted an early spot-kick before matters got worse for Billericay as Eyong was dismissed soon after the half hour mark.

Louis Ramsay struck the crossbar late on before Jarvis put daylight between the two sides.

Rhead’s penalty was saved in the dying moments to compound a day to forget.