Corinthian Casuals were made to rue a number of missed chances in the first half as they succumbed to a to a 3-1 defeat at home to Bognor Regis.

The Casuals took the lead after 11 minutes, when Hamilton Antonio curled his shot into the bottom left corner as the home side dominated but couldn't pull further ahead.

Ten minutes after the break, Bognor Regis equalised when Thomas Scutt squeezed it past Daniel Brocken from a tight angle, before Jimmy Muitt gave his side the lead five minutes later from the penalty spot.

The game was temporarily suspended in the 77th minute after a head injury to Max Oldham, who required an ambulance after a clash of heads but was able to walk off unaided.

After the re-start 15 minutes later, Casuals were hit in the dying embers by a Bognor counter attack, which saw Muitt double his tally and send Casuals falling to 14th in the table.

“If we took half of our chances today, we would have scored five, that's the god's honest truth,” explained the Casuals Manager James Bracken.

He added: “I'm not talking about half chances, or shots outside the box, but one-on-one's, shots hitting the crossbar and free headers inside the six yard box. We just didn't make the most of our chances.

“I can't fault them though; all I will remember from the game is the reaction in the last 12 minutes. Someone complimented me after the game and said that your teams never know when they're beaten. That was epitomised in the last 12 minutes of the game, which should have been more like 20 but the ref decided to play just two minutes over the top... but that is a side issue.

“That is what will come away with me, and it is what we need to focus on in the coming week, the positivity in the last twelve minutes, and the whole performance really. My brother (Danny Bracken) could have done better for the first. We switched off slightly for the penalty and we were going for the game and caught out for the third.

“We got more out of that today as a defeat, than we ever would have a win. I'm proud of the players, and I have no problem with them with regards to effort and the way we played. It just came down to the fact we didn't take our chances and we got caught out, but that's football.”

Bracken also reserved special praise for Max Oldham stating that while the side do need to be careful with the midfielder going forward, he was “brave to walk off without a stretcher” following the lengthy delay.

Next up for Corinthian Casuals are two away trips in the shape of a trip to Hornchurch next Saturday, followed by a visit to Folkestone the following Tuesday.

Bracken continued: “We will get both of them watched. We've watched Hornchurch and there won't be much football played by them, which is par for the course for the majority of teams in this league now.

“At the beginning of the season teams were actually getting the ball down and playing football, but it's got to Christmas and when things don't got to plan they resort to shelling it, and it is ugly.

“We'll be ready for that though, and we will make sure we're best prepared.”