Aveley 0, Hemel Hempstead Town 1

AVELEY finished Monday evening's Vanarama National league South clash with just nine men and suffering a second league defeat of the season.

Despite a haul of just one point from the opening three matches, a marked contrast to last season's exhilarating start to their first Step Two campaign, Miller boss Danny Scopes remains upbeat and reflected in his post margin interview on small margins. Aveley have lost two games by an only goal, and were denied a win by a late equaliser on Saturday.

For Hemel, it's been a decent start and they went into the match on the back of a win on Saturday and throughout the opening stages pressed Millers onto the back foot.

Millers were grateful for some good early saves from Carey Blodedorn but he was beaten when the game's only goal came on the 20 minute mark as a well-worked piece of play resulted in a driven cross, finding the feet of prolific goalscorer Ricardo German, who tapped the ball home.

The visitors might have had more in the remainder of the first half but Aveley proved resilient and came out much brighter in the second half, illustrated by an early effort from Alex Hernandez that went wide.

Hernandex looked a threat but he was eventually replaced by Miller debutant Adam Leathers on 74 minutes.

However, chances of a comeback were hampered when Manny Ogunrinde, who moments earlier had his own penalty claims denied,  saw himself sent off in the 81st minute for a second bookable offence. Garrett Kelly was given his marching orders in the 98th minute, just before the final whistle.

Visiting boss Bobby Wilkinson was complimentary about Aveley, after the match, saying: "There's a brilliant management team here and Danny Scopes deserves a lot of credit for what he's done at this football club."

Vanarama National South (Updated after matches on Tuesday, 20 August)

Aveley are back in action at Eastbourne on Saturday (24 August).