EVESHAM United were beaten 2-0 by League Two outfit Cheltenham Town at the Jubilee Stadium last night.

Both goals came in the first half as Evesham slumped to a third defeat in five pre-season games.

Paul Collicutt’s side got off to the worst possible start as a Cheltenham trialist opened the scoring inside the first 30 seconds.

Sean Brain almost pulled Evesham level on 11 minutes as he raced through before being denied by Town stopper Rhys Lovett.

Evesham were holding their own and came agonisingly close again on 35 minutes. Brain was one-on-one with Lovett but his shot struck the post.

Cheltenham then landed a sucker punch seven minutes before the break when an in-swinging free-kick was nodded in by striker Brian Graham.

This made it 2-0 to Cheltenham at half-time and they had a great chance to extend their lead at the start of the second period as Graham just failed to turn home George Lloyd’s low cross.

The visitors did hit the back of the net on 75 minutes only for Will Dawes’ strike to be ruled out for offside.

Evesham then had an opportunity of their own but Marley Thomas’ effort was brilliantly saved by Lovett.

In the closing minutes, Cheltenham’s Ben Tozer slammed his 20-yard shot against the crossbar before Evesham’s Joe Turley was thwarted by Lovett.

Elsewhere, Andy Crowther got on the scoresheet in Droitwich Spa’s 1-1 draw with Bewdley Town at King George’s Playing Fields.

Matt Turner and Louis Loader scored for Malvern Town as they drew 2-2 at Bishops Cleeve with all the goals coming in the opening period.