Bognor Regis Town 2, Basingstoke Town 1

A DISJOINTED Town display looked like yielding a point on the south coast until Kevin Murphy hit an unstoppable free-kick with just five minutes left to play.

It came from a debatable decision, which referee Smith later explained was given for a foul by German De La Vega for tugging down Michael Birmingham, even though David Ray had cleanly tackled Birmingham and he was going to ground.

Murphy's subsequent left-foot strike from 25 yards flew over the Town defensive wall into the top-right corner past Scott Tarr's dive to seal three points Bognor deserved but didn't seem like getting.

Town boss Ernie Howe said afterwards: "I thought we were going to get something from the game.

"There was certainly no foul from David Ray and it's disappointing the ref gave the free-kick and they then score from it. It's annoying.

"I felt the wall could've been positioned better, as we'd already been warned when they hit the post with another free-kick earlier on.

"We showed character to get back in the game, but didn't quite make the most of the situations we created."

Howe's men fell behind in the 26th minute, when the defence failed to deal with Bognor captain David Piper's looping cross to the back post.

Tarr stayed on his line, Jason Bristow, Liam Parrington and Brett Cooper all left it to the other and, when no clearance came, Parrington offered a token thigh that pushed the ball straight to Luke Nightingale, who had the easy task of scoring from close range.

Howe said: "I was looking for Scotty to be a bit more decisive and claim the ball, because it was in the air for a long time.

"Even so, there were three defenders there and they should have dealt with it.

"But Liam was hesitant in three other situations, backing away from the ball or making the wrong decision."

Town had started brightly, but there was a malaise in the middle of the park that cost them lots of possession.

Tarr had to make a great tip-over from Matt Russell's header to keep it 1-0 at half-time, but Town hit back early in the second half and were rewarded in the 49th minute when Neville Roach continued his rich vein of form

The striker raced on to De La Vega's through-ball down the inside-left channel and stole into the box.

He looked as though he'd wasted the chance, turning back inside substitute Adam Mountford, but he was able to get a crisp shot away into the bottom-left corner, past goalie Craig Stoner.

Having done so well for the goal, Town created another couple of chances but were let down by a poor Ray cross and another one from Roach that fell beyond Nathan Stamp.

The visitors then went back to their first-half failure to keep the ball.

Too many secondary balls were all too easily picked up by Bognor players and the pressure grew on the Town defence.

Birmingham hit the post with a curled free-kick on 66 minutes, but Murphy showed him how it was done late on to deny Town a share of the spoils.

Basingstoke Town: Scott Tarr, Brett Cooper (sub Cristian Levis 88 min), Neville Stamp, Jason Bristow, Liam Parrington, David Ray, German De La Vega (sub Ryan Stephens 88min), Sergio Torres, Martin Whiddett, Neville Roach, David Stroud (sub Nathan Stamp 64 min). Subs (not used): Jamie McClurg, Liam Castle.