Tonbridge Angels poor run of results at the Yeomans Community Stadium continued as their visitors, Hemel Hempstead Town, staged a second half comeback to cement their place in the top six.

Alan Dunne: “I’m frustrated, annoyed but also proud. In the first 45 minutes we were outstanding against a physically strong team, who in the second half had too much power, too advanced and were too strong for us. But, at 2-1, we were still in the game but from the sending-off it was game over. Brody has got to learn from that, the lad has wound him up and he has done something really naive that the referee has seen.”

Dunney made one change from the side that won at Hampton on Tuesday with Kyle Smith replacing Ricky Korboa, who took a place on the bench despite suffering sickness.

The first half was one of limited chances that saw the Angels break the deadlock on 27 minutes when Tom Leahy latched onto an Alfie Pavey’s head-on to shrug off a challenge from his marker before chopping back to create space to despatch a composed finish.

Following the goal the Angels showed a great deal of discipline that offered very little to the visitors bar a decent effort from Finley Wilkinson that was comfortably collected by Laurie Shala.

It was a very different Hemel that emerged from the dressing room for the second half and two goals in the space of five minutes turned the game on its head. After 54 minutes, Wilkinson cut in from the left to bury his shot into the bottom corner and the visitors were in front just before the hour when an initial shot from Wilkinson was blocked with the ball recycled for Millar Matthews-Lewis to bundle home from six yards.

A moment of madness saw Angels’ Brody Peart sent off for retaliation on 68 minutes after an altercation with Kyle Ajayi and an uphill struggle was compounded when Isiah Noel-Williams cut in from the right to find the bottom corner following good hold-up play from Matthews-Lewis with eight minutes remaining.

A good save from the Hemel goalkeeper, Michael Johnson, at his near post denied substitute Bunmi Babajide from reducing the deficit in the closing minutes as the Angels battled on through to the final whistle.

Alan Dunne concluded: “I was so proud of that first half, we were so good. It showed me that we are making so much progress as a team. There is a nucleus in there, a real strong nucleus. We are going to lose games, they are a top six team with resources that we are nowhere near, but the gap was marginal at the end, so it shows how far we have come.”

Picture: David Couldridge