BRACKNELL Town suffered their first league defeat of 2018 when going down 3-2 at Uxbridge on Saturday – and to add to their woes they lost left-back Ryan Parsons with a hamstring injury which could sideline him for several weeks, writes Dave Wright.

They trailed by three goals before hitting back through Joe Grant and Seb Bowerman and, though they also struck the woodwork twice and had two appeals for a penalty turned down during the game, it was generally a disappointing performance from the Robins.

To add salt to their wounds, two of the Uxbridge goals were scored by Matt Sinclair, who works at Morrisons in Bracknell and lives in Wokingham.

On a cloudless day and on what looked an excellent playing surface, Town struggled to find their rhythm in the opening stages with too many passes lacking crispness and accuracy.

Kensley Maloney and Matt Day tried their luck from distance, only to see their efforts blocked, while Adam Cornell was not far away with a header.

But the Robins were caught out by a ball down the middle and former Forest School pupil Sinclair raced through to fire past keeper Mark Scott for the opening goal after 19 minutes.

Soon afterwards, Town suffered another blow when Parsons limped off and was replaced by young Jon Hathaway. And they had a let-off in the 25th minute when Zaine Gangedeen struck the woodwork.

At the other end, Bowerman and Maloney both ballooned the ball over the bar, but in the 35th minute they found themselves two goals down. Town could only partially clear a free-kick and Gangedeen took advantage to beat Scott from an angle.

This goal did jolt Bracknell into realising they had to up their game and they were unlucky not to have pulled a goal back with Maloney hitting the post and Bowerman seeing his effort cleared off the line.

Grant missed an even better chance when firing over the top from a good position and it proved costly, as the hosts launched a counter-attack in the 52nd minute which was neatly finished off by Sinclair, who was at the Reading Academy at the same time as Robins coach Geoff Warner.

And shortly afterwards Town, who had conceded only three goals in their previous seven games, nearly fell further behind, with Scott going full stretch to superbly finger-tip a shot from Gangedeen over the bar.

Maloney was replaced by Ashleigh Artwell and the substitute was involved in the move which led to Grant pulling a goal back on 65 minutes.

The Robins were now asserting themselves more with Cornell, Jamie McClurg and Bowerman all going close, and it was neat work by McClurg and Bowerman which led to the latter netting the second goal in the 90th minute.

There were still five minutes of added time to be played, but Uxbridge held on to become the first side to beat Bracknell in a league match since their 1-0 defeat at Highworth in the Hellenic League in December.

Town take on Bognor Regis Town in the first qualifying round of the FA Trophy at Larges Lane this Saturday (3pm).

The Rocks also suffered their first Bostik League defeat of the season last week, going down 4-2 at home to Folkestone Invicta in the Premier Division.

Providing a replay at Bognor is not required, Bracknell will be home to Reading Under-23s in the Berks & Bucks Senior Trophy next Tuesday (7.45pm).