Kings Langley’s troubled spell continued as they were beaten 2-0 in their first meeting with Bishop’s Stortford for 53 years.

Last night’s defeat was Kings’ fourth in succession in the Southern League Premier Division and leaves them 19th in the table with five points from seven games.

The game was played in incessant rain and the weather reflected the mood of Kings boss Paul Hobbs as his selection problems showed no sign of abating. Three players remained unavailable through suspension and Jorell Johnson was joined on the injury list by Jack Pattison and Lee Stobbs.

Manny Folarin switched to the right of a back three and there was a first start for Macauley Keating in midfield. Louis Bircham, returning from his loan to AFC Dunstable, also made his first start, partnering Mitchell Weiss up front.

The visitors started in positively and could have gone ahead in the third minute when Stevie Ward combined with Weiss for the latter to deliver a shot that was parried on the line, but Bircham couldn’t force home the rebound.

Weiss was to prove a handful all evening for the defenders deployed to mark him and won the ball to test Tyler McCarthy soon after, before the home side delivered a flurry of chances of their own.

A Jason Williams header went just wide, a Ward slip nearly let in Darren Foxley and it took a superbly timed saving tackle from Sam Tring to deny Dipo Akinyemi.

But Stortford’s pressure paid off when a raking diagonal pass found Foxley unmarked in the left wing position and he took it in his stride to beat Ross Hampton.

Weiss was still plugging away at the opposite end, ably supported by the speedy Bircham, and a penetrating run was forced too wide for the acute shot to be on target.

The second half opened with an Ollie Cox powerful free-kick held by McCarthy, but the home side were using a wide formation effectively, constantly finding space on the wings and when they won a corner, the cross was headed back and the resultant shot was blocked by Hampton. Unfortunately for Kings, the ball rebounded off the incoming Williams into the net to give a two-goal buffer.

The visiting defence then suffered the jitters as they underwent a nervous five minutes that is becoming all too familiar.

To their credit, they overcame this, showed more passion than three days earlier in Saturday’s 3-0 home defeat against Farnborough and finished strongly with Ward skimming the bar, a Callum Adebiyi header just wide and a Folarin header clawed away.

But the breaks wouldn’t come and although the performance was better than on Saturday, the result was the same.

Kings Langley: Hampton; Folarin, Adebiyi, Tring (Gosling 67); Keating, Ward, Cox, Turner (Karagozlu 81), Coldicott-Stevens; Weiss, Bircham (Waldren 61). Subs not used: Hasler and Stobbs.