Adie Britton was in rueful mood as he reflected on 'an absolutely crazy 15-minute spell' that condemned his Bath City side to an opening-day defeat.

Chelmsford City struck four times between the 10th and 24th minutes and then held on desperately in the face of a thrilling comeback to win an action-packed encounter.

"You get crazy games in the early part of the season and that was certainly a crazy game," said Britton of a match that also saw Will Puddy save a Chelmsford penalty and Mark Badman get sent off.

"The defending, literally just for 15 minutes of the game, was woeful and their goals were all down to bad mistakes.

"It was a big ask for us to chase it after that, even though we were clearly the better side in the second half."

Debutant goalkeeper Puddy, on loan from Cheltenham Town, was at fault for the first three goals which undermined a bright start from the visitors.

He spilled a routine save for Danny Hockton to tap home the opener, then palmed Jason Hallett's looping cross-shot into his own net four minutes later.

Hallett soared over a flapping Puddy to nod home the third goal and, with the City defence now in total disarray, Anthony Cook pounced to make it 4-0 after the visitors failed to clear another set-piece.

However, City were given a much-needed confidence boost on the half-hour mark when Puddy saved a Hallett penalty after Sido Jombati had handled in the box.

Within 15 minutes, the visitors were right back in the game as Richard Evans punished a defensive mix-up to make it 4-1 and Darren Edwards scored from the penalty spot following a foul on Marcus Browning.

Midfielder Badman was shown two yellow cards in the second half but City were the dominant team and pulled another goal back through sub Mike Perrott but could not quite force an equaliser.