WITHAM Town suffered their first defeat of the season to Brentwood Town after losing 3-2 in bizarre circumstances in the Isuzu FA Trophy first qualifying round, writes JIM PURTILL.

After dominating the first half and leading 2-1 at half-time, Witham were unable to cope with the second-half recovery by Brentwood, who finished the tie with nine men.

After Josh Osude nearly opened the scoring for Witham, Brentwood took a fifth-minute lead.

Daniel Ogunleye collected a long kick from goalkeeper Marvin Minter and was allowed too much time to compose himself on the right of the penalty area before planting an excellent shot into the far corner.

But Witham responded well and Liam Whipps equalised with a brilliant free-kick, in the 15th minute.

And Osude put Witham ahead after 31 minutes, with a brilliant individual goal.

Osude nearly added to his tally just before the interval when Whipps' clever free-kick led to his shot hitting the bar.

(Image: JIM PURTILL)

At half-time victory looked well within Witham’s grasp but Brentwood made a strong start to the second period.

Witham goalkeeper James Askew made two good saves while Ogunleye shot wide when he should have scored and he missed another good chance, soon after.

The referee had allowed some questionable challenges to go unpunished early on and struggled to maintain control, as the match proceeded.

After showing one yellow card in the first half, he brandished four in the space of 15 minutes, with Agyakwa's 62nd-minute foul on Archie McFadden earning the Brentwood player his second yellow and reducing the hosts to ten men.

(Image: JIM PURTILL)

But Brentwood equalised in the 79th minute when Kai Brown exploited Witham’s failure to deal with the danger from a throw-in. However, Witham were handed a lifeline, three minutes later.

Osude was fouled in the penalty area by Romel Arons Royal who was sent off, after receiving his second yellow card.

But Osude’s penalty cleared the crossbar and in a dramatic finale, Jesse Olukolu won the match for Brentwood after wrong-footing the Witham defence and shooting into the top corner.

Witham will wonder how they lost control of the tie, in a ragged second-half performance.