Lowly Newport IOW dropped two valuable points in their battle to beat the Ryman Division 1 drop as they drew 1-1 against Bashley at St George's Park.

However, defeats for Banstead and Ashford mean that John Linington's men have at least climbed out of the bottom-two drop zone into 19th place.

Chris Ferrett levelled with an 80th-minute free-kick for the visitors after Newport had taken the lead on the stroke of half-time when David Greening capitalised on a defensive mix-up.

Bashley boss Geoff Butler admitted: "They had the better chances and will probably feel they did enough to win.

"David Greening could have had a hat-trick but missed a couple of one on ones. We had a very young side and were up against a team with experienced professionals."

Havant & Waterlooville bounced back from their Good Friday defeat at Dorchester to trounce in-form Carshalton 4-1 at Westleigh Park.

Dean Holdsworth and Neil Sharp both struck twice in the Conference South class against a Carshalton side who had Bradley Pritchard red-carded for a second bookable offence.

Basingstoke kept in contention for a play-off place with a 1-0 victory at Welling United - ex- AFC Totton skipper Martin Whiddett scoring.