HARWICH and Parkeston were beaten 4-2 by Downham Town in Thurlow Nunn League first division north, writes COLIN ROGERS.

The Shrimpers were forced to make changes with key defenders Nathan Kiousis, Jack Wood, and Shaun Kiousis unavailable, whilst Ben Hammond's injury will keep him out until October.

This meant that the Shrimpers calling on ever-reliable veteran Michael Murray, who had an excellent game, reserve Jordan Slater and giving youngster Harry Tuck his second start plus coach Daryl Eagle filling a spot on the bench.

Harwich made a slow start and soon found themselves a goal behind.

Early in the move there appeared to be a clear offside but play continued for Downham to take the lead with a well-taken shot into the top corner of the net.

Harwich recovered from a rocky start during the opening 15 minutes to equalise with a well-worked goal.

Luke Mayhew and Joe Knight exchanged a clever one-two before the former clipped the ball over the goalkeeper.

Harwich almost scored again when in a goalmouth scramble, Knight's flick hit the crossbar.

Ten minutes into the second half Downham regained the lead when a strike from inside the penalty box gave goalkeeper Brad Cook no chance.

But five minutes later, Harwich were level again scoring the best goal of the game when Gareth Heath spotted an opening and from 25 yards rocketed his shot into the top corner of the net.

It was a vintage goal that the Shrimpers skipper has made a habit of scoring spectacularly, in his long career.

Play was end-to-end but in the 75th minute Harwich suffered a blow when a handball resulted in Downham going 3-2 ahead from the penalty spot.

The Shrimpers now had to push forward in a last effort to rescue a point and Downham took advantage of the space to score their fourth goal in the closing minutes.

Downham proved to be strong opposition, capable of climbing the league table but although the Shrimpers were not let down by the players coming in, Harwich came home feeling that they could have got a result had they been able to field a full-strength team.

Harwich entertain Great Yarmouth Town at the Gwinnell & Sons Royal Oak tomorrow (Saturday), kick-off 3pm.

Then next Wednesday, Harwich travel to meet Basildon in the Essex Senior Cup, with the match to be played at East Thurrock FC.