Huntingdon Town were stung by a late sucker-punch when falling to home defeat last Saturday.
Jimmy Brattan's men were beaten 2-1 by Rushden & Higham United in a Jubilee Park clash they dominated for long spells.
Town fell behind to a stunning strike on the half-hour but clawed their way level in the second period when debutant Harry McGregor's hard work led to a simple chance for James Seymour.
That was the cue for Town to pile on the pressure and frontman Josh Rosser was twice within a whisker of putting them ahead.
Former Godmanchester Rovers man McGregor and Jakub Sulima also saw efforts narrowly miss the target before Rushden & Higham snatched victory on the break late on.
"I'm still struggling to work out how we lost the game," admitted Town boss Brattan.
"We played some of the best football we've produced for a while in the first half when finding ourselves behind to an absolutely stunning goal.
"But we knew there was no need to panic as we were causing a lot of problems and it was no surprise that we got ourselves level in the second half.
"We were then all over them like a bad rash. We had them penned in for 20 minutes and created some good chances, but we just couldn't get ourselves ahead.
"To then find ourselves behind again was really tough to take. There's no doubt we deserved at least one point and I could argue we did enough to get all three, but to finish with nothing is a real kick in the teeth."
Town now face two tough away tests in the space of four days with a visit to table-topping Long Buckby tomorrow night (Wednesday, 7.45pm) followed by a Saturday (3pm) visit to a Bugbrooke side also expected to challenge for the title.
"We know it's going to be tough in the next two games," added Brattan. "But they are both free hits for us in many ways.
"Long Buckby had a good side last season and have improved even more with some big signings.
"They won a top-of-the-table game at Blackstones last Saturday so are clearly in good form while Bugbrooke are another really well-fancied team.
"They've only lost once in the league all season and have games in hand on most of the top sides.
"But we know that we can compete with everyone at this level if applying ourselves properly and I fully believe we can pick up something."
Town hope to complete the signing of Potton striker Kyrie Foster ahead of tonight but midfielder Christian Le has left to take a break from the game.
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