Bashley'S shrinking band of senior players suffered two more blows on Saturday when Dave Wakefield limped off injured and skipper Chris Ferrett was red-carded in the 2-0 home defeat by Molesey.

Wakefield was almost certainly ruled out of this afternoon's trip to Newport IoW after making an early exit with the recurrence of an old knee problem.

"Dave thinks it's the same thing that required an operation some time ago and he was pessimistic on Saturday that he wouldn't play again this season.

"Let's hope he's just jarred it and he'll be able to shake it off," said boss Geoff Butler.

Ferrett's uncharacteristic dismissal came shortly after James Mepham had capitalised on a Paul Gazzard error to fire Molesey 2-0 up. It completed a disastrous two-minute collapse for the Foresters who were still reeling from Phil Williams' 54th-minute opener.

"It was just the frustration of it all that got to Chris," said Butler. "Molesey weren't a good side by any stretch of the imagination, but we had a lethargy about us that we couldn't get rid of and we never troubled them.

"At half-time I couldn't see them scoring, but we made a couple of errors at the back.

"Then, just after we've gone 2-0 down, Chris has tried to beat a Molesey player up the line and this fella's checked him. It erred on the side of a free kick to us, but nothing's been given and then this fella's got in front of Chris to shepherd the ball out of play and Chris has kicked him. He knew he'd done wrong, but it was typical of the disappointment of the day and it ended any hope of us getting back into the match."

It was a bleak day too for Newport IoW who were dragged into the bottom-two drop zone after a slender 1-0 defeat at second-placed Walton & Hersham.

Although there was plenty to applaud in the Islanders' performance, their afternoon was tarnished by a fluke Walton goal - plus news that relegation rivals Ashford had pulled off a shock 2-1 home win over Leatherhead.

It sneaks the Kent side just ahead of Newport on goal difference and, critically, both Ashford and fourth-to-bottom Banstead have a game in hand over the Islanders.

"I couldn't believe the Ashford result," Port boss John Linington admitted. "But if we play like we did at Walton for the rest of the season, we've got a strong chance of staying up.

"We kept them out for 68 minutes and then they got a fluke goal when the ball's gone over Steve Leigh and their bloke's (Mark Nwokeji) got up to head it before we could react."

The plus point for Newport was a highly promising debut from new defensive signing Adam Howarth, who was a titan at the back.

The 6ft 5in Hampshire under-21 skipper played for Southern Premier outfit Cirencester during his time as a student in Bath but recently returned to the Island playing for Cowes Sports.

On the down side, Adam Barsdell (hamstring), Ollie Fleming (groin) and Jon Holmes (blisters) were all doubtful for today's home clash with Bashley (3pm).

Fleet Town could have been virtually safe by now had they beaten rock-bottom Croydon on Good Friday, but they were held to an uneventful 0-0 home draw. Croydon came closest to scoring when Bronek Dabrowa's header hit the post.