CALNE Town were left cursing their luck after Manor Farm's fortunate winner compounded a match which saw them without three first choice defenders after just 12 minutes.

Manager Kelvin Highmore had already reshuffled his side after skipper Darren Smart pulled out of the game through illness on Friday. But he was dealt another blow at 12.30pm on Saturday when Ben Highmore also reported sick.

As if matters could not get any worse Chris Jones was sent off after orders on 12 minutes for handling a goal bound effort from Farm's Dave Aansiyah. Nick Tiley duly converted the penalty to leave Calne with a mountain to climb.

The visitors, however, refused to buckle and drew level on 38 minutes when James Lye picked out defender Ryan Pratley who had raced all the way from his own box. Pratley latched on to the pass before rifling a 20-yard shot past Farm goalkeeper Ian Jones.

Farm laid siege to the Calne goal in the final half hour and stole the three points on 70 minutes. Danny Slee got his head to Tiley's corner, and his effort took several ricochets before trickling over the line.

Highmore accepted that Jones deserved to be sent off, but was encouraged by his team's performance.

He said: "Nothing was going right for us at the back. We knew we were in for a hard game beforehand, but then we had to play 78 minutes with 10 men.

We had to completely reshuffle, but we were still very unlucky to come out 2-1 losers. The lads rallied well, I can't praise them enough."

Calne are at home to Cadbury Heath tomorrow.

Ben Highmore, Darren Smart, Glenn Armstrong and goalkeeper Darren Simms could all be back in the Calne squad, but manager Highmore is still eying up a couple of signings.

Purton winger Tom Dingle and Bradford Town striker Tom Pang remain his chief targets.

He said: "I'm hoping to be back to full strength, but we are trying to improve the squad all the time.

"We are still trying to track down Tom Dingle and talk to him. Purton are doing very well at the moment so he will take some prizing away. I'm not allowed to talk to Tom Pang until Friday."