Waltham Abbey relinquished their lead at the top of the Bostik South Central League after slipping to their second defeat in three games against Tooting and Mitcham United.

The Abbott’s were beaten 2-0 on home turf by the visitors thanks to goals from Isaiah Jones and Danny Bassett, in a result which saw Mark Stimson’s side drop down to fourth place.

Hayes and Yeading are the new league leaders after their 3-1 victory over Ware, while wins for Bracknell Town as well as Marlow saw them leapfrog Abbey in the table.

Stimson made three changes to the starting line-up with Ross Dedman, Rimmel Daniel and Toby Cleaver all coming into the side.

After a quiet opening, the Abbott’s then enjoyed a sustained period of pressure with Ronnie Winn forcing a decent save low down from the Tooting keeper, while both Ellis Brown and Cleaver were unable to get on the end of Daniel’s teasing cross moments later.

But Abbey would get off to a dreadful start in the second half and found themselves 2-0 down by the hour mark.

Firstly, Jones produced a superb finish from Saidou Khan’s pinpoint ball forward just five minutes after the restart to give Tooting the lead and they doubled their advantage on the hour mark when Bassett was on hand to tap home Elijah Simpson’s low cross.

Waltham Abbey’s Arthur Janata had to be at his best to prevent Tooting from getting a third late on in the second half, in a game which saw the Abbott’s lose their unbeaten record on home turf this campaign.

Stimson told the club’s website: "We created a couple of good chances in the first half to go 1 - 0 up and the Tooting keeper pulled off a great save. We also could have scored after some great wing play but somehow the ball evaded everyone.

“I am an honest manager and will admit that in the second half, Tooting deserved their win."