TWO former Dorking players came back to haunt their old club and claim victory for Croydon on Tuesday night.

Forced into making four changes from the side that picked up a morale-boosting draw with high-flying Camberley Town on Saturday, Peter Augustine's side never really got into their stride until they were two goals behind, courtesy of Stuart Padgett and Danny Clayton.

And by then it was too late to salvage anything from the game.

Augustine admitted his side "lacked punch" up front and despite a few good opportunities, they never really looked like scoring.

The first half was a bitty affair, with few clear-cut chances to speak of.

The visitors were at their best from set plays, and lofted an endless number of balls high into the Chicks box, that by and large the defence dealt with comfortably.

Shane Thomas had an overhead kick blocked in the 15th minute and the same player flicked past Doug Still in the home goal, but could only flick wide two minutes later.

Former Chick Danny Clayton had a long range effort deflected wide for a corner on 19 minutes, and from the resulting corner Turgay Alli headed wide when completely unmarked in the middle.

Dorking then put together a sustained period of pressure.

Shola Elusade just couldn't get a strong enough contact on a Sama Olarewaju cross, before he had a goal ruled out for offside following a purposeful foray forward from the excellent Taylor Mollatt.

Elusade then headed wide from a free-kick before turning provider for Steffan Beckford. It was a delicious cross to the back post, but somehow a combination of Beckford and defender Justin Hemmings saw the ball drift wide.

The second half started slowly, but the hosts were given a warning of what was to follow when in the 63rd minute Martin Smith came in from the right hand side, found acres of space, released substitute Danny Penfold on the left, whose cross should have been converted by either Smith or Thomas in the middle.

Three minutes later and the Chicks had not learnt their lesson as Smith was again the instigator in the opening goal.

Again he drifted in from the right and played back to Craig Phelps. The right-back looked up and lofted a deep cross, over the head of Joshua Ferguson and found another former Chick Stuart Padgett waiting to stroke in.

Four minutes later it was game over as Smith again provided the ammunition for Clayton to volley home on the spin to make it a night to remember for former Dorking stars.

The home side rallied in the last 20 minutes, with substitute Tom Ahmed suggesting he could be a big player for them in the coming weeks.

Elusade could not control a Marvin Farrell cross that he reached before the keeper and he later shot woefully wide when set up by Reece Perry.

Mollatt caught out former Leatherhead keeper Craig Bradshaw with a cross that drifted all too close to the far post, and the same player was almost put through one-on-one, but Bradshaw beat him to it as the chances dried up.

Dorking: Still, Ferguson, Farrell, Mollatt, Harrison, Murphy, Beckford (Ahmed), Elusade, Waldren (Perry), Meite, Olarewaju (Muamba). Unused subs: Zada, Bent.