BRACKNELL Town paid the price for missing several good chances by losing 2-1 at Hanwell on Saturday and suffered their first defeat in 12 league matches, writes Dave Wright.

They had a total of 17 attempts at goal, while restricting their hosts to just four.

It was a surprising result considering it came just four days after they had hammered Uxbridge 4-0 at Larges Lane after playing with 10 men for 70 minutes, but they remain strongly placed in the race to occupy one of the South Central Division's play-off places.

The Robins started well enough against mid-table Hanwell and Joel Jacobs quickly forced a fine save out of keeper Aaron Bufton, who tipped his 25-yard shot over the bar.

But when Bufton lost out to Matt Day in the area, the loose ball was smashed home by Liam Ferdinand and the visitors were ahead after 17 minutes.

Town were forced to make a change at half-time as Ryan Parsons had suffered a hamstring injury, with Joe Grant coming on as the formation was switched to 4-4-2.

Five minutes into the second half the substitute was not far away from scoring from Ferdinand's cross and shortly afterwards he was denied by Bufton, who did equally well to thwart Jamie McClurg as the midfielder looked to follow up his goal against Uxbridge.

It came as something of a surprise when Hanwell equalised just before the hour mark with a goal from Jeremiah Maja, brother of Josh, who recently moved from Sunderland to Bordeaux for a reported fee of £3.5m.

Bracknell soon had a chance to regain the lead when Joe Gater moved in as Bufton spilt Jacobs' free-kick, but his effort was hacked off the Hanwell line.

Although the better chances fell Town's way, the game could have gone either way and, as manager Geoff Warner later commented: "With 20 minutes to go I would have taken a draw."

But the hosts, who had drawn 2-2 at Larges Lane last November, snatched victory through Louis Bircham after 78 minutes.

Ten minutes later the Robins should have equalised when Sean Moore's cross was headed down by Grant to Ashleigh Artwell, but he blazed his shot cleared the bar.

Just before the end, Hanwell were awarded a penalty when Mark Scott was harshly adjudged to have brought down a home forward, but the spot-kick was blasted over the top.

"If they had scored, 3-1 would have been a totally false scoreline," said Warner, whose side were scheduled to visit bottom-of-the-table Egham last night (Tuesday).