Petersfield Town manager Connor Hoare admitted his side didn’t hit their levels during their 3-2 defeat against Christchurch in the Wessex League Premier Division.

Christchurch picked up their first away win of the season to close the gap to Petersfield.

The visitors took the lead on ten minutes. Harvey Aston lunged in to tackle, but his challenge came off striker Lyle Simpson and rolled into the far corner.

The hosts had chances to equalise, but Cam Langan and Chad Cornwell missed the ball when trying to shoot in a good position and Dec Seiden had an effort blocked after working some space.

The visitors looked better than their lowly league position and could have doubled their lead. Elliot Rossiter capitalised on poor communication to beat Rams keeper Jay Morris to the ball on the edge of the box, but his touch was a bit too heavy and he couldn’t get his effort on target.

Christchurch extended their lead just before half-time. Simpson got in behind the Petersfield defence and played the ball inside for it to be bundled in by Rossiter.

Seiden made it game on after half-time when he won a penalty on 49 minutes after cutting inside on the edge of the box and being taken out by a sliding tackle. Seiden stepped up and rolled his penalty down the middle and past the keeper.

The game became end-to-end with Morris making a good one-on-one save with his legs.

The visitors went 3-1 ahead in the 75th minute. Conrad Churchill used a burst of pace down the left and played a ball across goal for Rossiter to stick it into the roof of the net.

The Rams failed to get anything out of the game apart from a consolation from Seiden in the 99th minute. Seiden dribbled through the Christchurch defence and feinted the final man before he dinked the keeper to pull a goal back.

Hoare felt his side could have been sharper in their display.

“In the first half we were getting hurt because we were losing possession when we weren’t set up right to win the ball back and press straight away.

“That meant Christchurch were able to hit us on the break quickly and cause us problems.

“The players knew what the problem was at half-time – we didn’t have to tell them – and we did improve in the second half, but we caught out again for the third goal.”

Next up for the Rams is a home game against Wessex League Premier Division high-fliers Shaftesbury today (Saturday). The match kicks-off at 3pm.