St Neots Town slid into the bottom half of the Southern League Premier Division standings after suffering a second defeat of the season.

David Batch’s men went down 2-1 to Cirencester at the Premier Plus Stadium despite hitting the front through Ryan Hawkins five minutes before half-time.

But the strike was cancelled out four minutes after the restart and Cirencester struck again with 15 minutes to go.

And St Neots, who handed a debut to new defensive signing Shane Blackett, could not make the most of a numerical advantage in the dying moments after visiting defender Shayne Anson had been red-carded for a challenge on substitute Luis Vieira.