Eastbourne Borough are facing a defensive conundrum for the FA Cup after two centre-backs were sent off.

Brian Dutton and Ian Simpemba saw red in the 5-1 home defeat by Chelmsford City.

Both will miss the third qualifying round tie at home to Hadley on Saturday.

Dutton went for a professional foul with his side 2-0 down and Simpemba was shown a second yellow for a mis-timed tackle after the break.

Although Dutton was the last defender as Chelmsford counter-attacked, his offence came just a couple oif yards inside the Borough half.

It was Simpemba’s second dismissal in successive home league games and he is likely to miss two matches.

Assistant boss Hugo Langton said: “Everything that could go wrong did go wrong.

“Chelmsford are a big, strong, physical side who play to their strengths and we conceded two poor goals with 11 men.

“You’re two down with ten men at half-time so what do you do? We decided to go on the front foot and we started the second half well.

“There was a clear handball in their area not given and for us that was a big turning point.”

Mark Hughes scored a deserved goal against his old club to offer some very late consolation.

Langton added: “We will now plan for Hadley without two key players. We’ll look at that on Monday morning.”