BRIDPORT suffered a 2-1 defeat at Exmouth thanks to a goal from Karl Rickard an own goal from Luke King, while an own goal narrowed the scoreline.

The Bees picked up four injuries with Kameron Andrews, Chris McGrath, Andy Martin and Matt Condliffe ruled out, which caused Bridport to cancel their friendly at Sherborne Town today.

The Bees fell behind after 20 minutes through a mistake from McGrath as the ball bobbled over his foot and Rickard fired past Jason Hutchings.

Not long after, the Bees nearly responded when Tom Richardson nodded against a post from an Andy Martin corner.

Exmouth doubled their advantage when King accidentally put the ball past Hutchings from a ball in after 60 minutes.

The Bees grabbed a goal back when a cross from Oscar Latas saw Mark Salter jump for the ball, which went in off an Exmouth defender after 65 minutes, but they could not find an equaliser in what was a tight match.

Bees’ assistant-manager Paddy Behan said: “The most pleasing point from Wednesday’s game is that we did look fit, even the final 20 minutes when down to 10 men (due to injury) we looked to be pushing the game. Oscar (Latas) has come back to pre-season on fire.”