Harrow Borough suffered a 5-2 home defeat to Ryman Premier Division promotion challengers East Thurrock United on Tuesday night.

The Reds were leading 2-1 at half-time but were overwhelmed in the second half after conceding four goals without reply.

Steve Baker’s side conceded the opening goal after 13 minutes when Sam Higgins beat the offside trap and fired home.

But the home side levelled the contest just after the half hour mark when Lewis Driver laid the ball off to David Taylor and his strike deflected in off the bar.

It did not take long for Boro to claim the lead for the first time in the match when Driver cut inside and fired a low strike into the net.

Any hopes of a strong start to the second half went out of the window within 15 seconds of the restart when the visitors equalised.

The home side gave away possession and Higgins raced through on goal before lifting his effort over the onrushing goalkeeper Brendan Hazlett.

It got even worse two minutes later when Joe Ellul was afforded too much space and he fired a shot into the net.

United made it 4-2 when Tom Wraight stole in at the far post and scored. The Rocks rounded off the scoring late on when Higgins completed his hat-trick.

It was the second defeat of the week for Boro after they were thrashed 4-0 at league leaders Dulwich Hamlet on Saturday.

Dulwich led 1-0 at the break after a 38th minute opener from Nyren Clunis.

The visitors’ hopes of a comeback were shattered at the start of the second half when goalkeeper Hazlett was sent off for handling the ball outside the area.

Driver had to take over in goal and the forward was forced to save at the feet of Ryan Moss.

But he could do nothing about the second goal as Damian Scannell lifted the ball over the stand-in keeper.

Clunis scored again before substitute Jacob Erskine netted the final goal.

The Reds return to action at Metropolitan Police on Tuesday night.