Bath City 1 Hampton & Richmond 3: Bath City boss Adie Britton admits his team must tighten up at the back after they slumped to a second self-inflicted defeat of the season.

After gifting Chelmsford City four goals on the opening day, City were punished for three more defensive errors as Hampton & Richmond Borough left Twerton Park with a 3-1 victory.

"Defending has been one of our strengths for three years – we have kept plenty of clean sheets, we have conceded the least goals," said Britton.

"Perhaps it's changing a little bit. We are playing some good attacking football but we are not defending as well as we should, and that is something we will have to look at."

City looked good going forward and should have gone ahead in the 17th minute, when Darren Edwards was fouled in the box but smashed the subsequent penalty against the bar.

The visitors took the lead three minutes later, when a misplaced header by defender Matt Coupe fell to Lawrence Yaku, whose shot was diverted into his own net by Chris Holland.

Skipper Jim Rollo then conceded a penalty just before half-time, which Barry Matthews converted, and a poor pass by midfielder Marcus Browning inadvertently sent the dangerous Yaku through to make it 3-0 just after the break.

Substitute Kaid Mohamed finished off some excellent work by Lewis Hogg to pull one back just after the hour, but City were unable to force a second goal.

A physical game ended on a sour note when, in injury-time, Browning and Hampton sub Ian Hodges head-butted each other, leading to both being shown a red card by referee Andrew Newell.

It took City until late October to concede 10 goals during their first season in the Blue Square South, and it was mid-September last campaign before their goals against column was in double figures.

Britton is concerned the team balance might not be quite right, but skipper Jim Rollo says it is up to the defenders to solve the problem.

"Yes, we are trying to attack a bit more and score more goals but you cannot use that as an excuse for the way we have defended," he said."We've prided ourselves on not giving goals away over the past three or four years. Myself, Gethin (Jones), Dutch (Chris Holland), (Matt) Coupe – we have got a lot of games under our belts alongside each other during that time, we know how each other play.

"We spent a bit of time last Thursday working together as a back four and then today we have conceded another three goals, which hurts, especially at home. We have got a free week, so perhaps we need to spend a bit more time together on the training ground."