A GOALKEEPING mistake cost Chelmsford City dearly as their poor run of form continued against Hampton & Richmond Borough.

The Clarets have now failed to win any of their last six National League South matches, following the 2-1 reverse at the Melbourne Stadium.

And City manager Rod Stringer admitted it was a hard loss to accept.

“I’m very disappointed”, he said. “It’s a tough defeat. If you look at the amount of possession we had in the second half, when it’s back at 1-1 we’ve got to go on and win the game.

"But we’ve made another mistake, which happened on Tuesday [in the 3-1 defeat to Hemel Hempstead Town], which is unfortunate for the lad but he’s 19-years-old and he’s cost us some goals.”

The home team made a dreadful start to the clash and were trailing inside four minutes, The clinical Max Kretzschmar finished well from inside the penalty area past the dive of on-loan Watford goalkeeper Nathan Gartside.

Anthony Church and Mark Haines came close to drawing Chelmsford level, with a Michael Spillane header cleared off the line in the final action of the first half.

Church headed in an equaliser with 30 minutes to play but Hampton were back in front not long after.

A corner was misjudged by Gartside and Elliot Charles headed home the winner.

Chelmsford City: Gartside, Omuzusi, Braham-Barrett, Johnson, Spillane, Haines, Green, Church, Batt (Dickson 77’), Miles (Hitchcock 68’), Giles (Oyenuga 77’)