Kings Langley shipped three goals in the final 13 minutes for the third time in three home matches this season as they were beaten 3-0 by Farnborough at Gaywood Park on Saturday.

The defeat leaves Paul Hobbs’ men 18th in the Southern League Premier Division after a poor performance got what it deserved.

Already without three players due to suspension, Kings were dealt a further pre-match blow when influential skipper Jorell Johnson picked up a midweek injury and was ruled out, although Lee Stobbs and Jack Pattison passed late fitness tests.

Boss Paul Hobbs switched to a 4-5-1 formation with starts for Pattison, Sam Tring and Ollie Cox while Josh Coldicott-Stevens continued in midfield.

The game got off to a slow start and the opening half never really improved, as both teams tentatively tested each other out without creating anything in front of goal.

Ross Hampton held a Dan Walker shot on 20 minutes and Callum Adebiyi was inches away from connecting with a low corner five minutes later, but they were the only efforts in the opening 45 minutes worthy of mention.

The second period had to improve and it did – but only for the visitors.

Hampton superbly tipped over a Connor Calcutt header and then the striker shot wide when well placed. But it was two substitutions that changed the game as the visitors brought on the evergreen Jamie Cureton, who immediately set up Walker, only for him to blast wide.

Kings had meanwhile brought on Brendan Ocran, who was to lose the ball on the halfway line and see it slipped through to Glen Southern to beat Hampton and put Boro on their way.

Unlike previous encounters, the fight in the face of set-backs didn’t seem to manifest itself on this occasion as a strangely subdued Kings showed little sign of getting back in the game with too many players having a collective off-day, outmuscled by a physical opposition.

Adebiyi acquitted himself well in his stand-in centre back role, often surging forward, and Cox was his usual industrious self in midfield and produced the majority of Kings’ few shots on target, while Hampton was solid in goal.

However, he was left exposed when Cureton’s second set-up for Walker was this time accepted and again when an unmarked Calcutt lobbed in the third to complete a day to forget for the hosts.

Kings Langley: Hampton; Pattison (Keating 72), Folarin, Adebiyi, Tring; Cox, Coldicott-Stevens (Bircham 83); Stobbs (Ocran 59), Ward, Turner; Weiss. Subs not used: Waldren, Bateman.