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.”
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