Bashley boss Geoff Butler blamed bad defending and poor decision-making after the Foresters had a let a two-goal lead slip in Saturday's 3-2 home defeat by Walton & Hersham.

Having worked themselves into a position of strength through a second-minute Neil Lampton own goal, forced by a peach of a cross by Graeme Gee, and a cracking Danny Gibbons shot, Bash were undone by the route one football of a strong, pacy Walton side.

First teenage midfielder Chris Knowles was dispossessed after unwisely trying to bring the ball down on the halfway line, allowing Mark Nwokeji to sneak in and bundle the ball home.

Nwokeji struck again after Matt Parnell had missed his header from a ball pumped straight down the middle and, with a minute remaining, Bash again failed to clear, allowing Simon Sobihy to drill home the winner.

Butler, pictured above, said: "In Chris Knowles' defence, he's only 18 and he was limping with a bit of an injury, but even our senior players are guilty of trying to pull ball down and play in areas where it's dangerous for the team.

"Walton are a big, strong, quick side who played very direct football, which was the right thing to do on a boggy, bumpy pitch. I wanted us to do that too, but we're not good at that. Our mentality is not to lump the ball forward, but to try and play in the wrong areas. No matter how much I try and get the players to do something different for the good of the team, they won't listen."

He added: "It's not a case of me not wanting us to play football, but this game's all about percentages and you won't see good players trying to pull the ball down in areas where they might lose it. The more I watch us, the more I see how little our experienced players know about winning football matches."

While Bashley have slipped to 11th in the table, former basement club Newport IoW are still moving in the right direction after a 1-1 home draw with Leatherhead.

According to manager John Linington the result would have been even better had it not been for the loss of influential midfielder Leigh Cole midway through the first half with a dead leg.

He said: "Until Leigh was kicked and came off, we were by far the better side and could have gone three or four goals up. We were bubbling and looking for the next goal and even the Leatherhead manager admitted he thought they were going to get done."

The Islanders could have gone ahead as early as the first minute through Dave Greening, but eventually did so after nine when Greening set up Frenchman Olamide Dedegbe to score on his full debut.

Greening had another couple of chances, including a turned down penalty appeal, but it was Leatherhead who had the bulk of the possession once Cole had made his exit.

Adam Gray equalised with eight minutes remaining after Ollie Fleming had failed to make a clearing header.

Even so, it was an encouraging performance by the Islanders against a Leatherhead side who had already beaten them twice in Surrey - 2-1 in the league and 1-0 in the Bryco Cup.

Fleet Town are just ahead of 18th-placed Newport on goal difference after slipping up 3-1 at home to mighty league leaders AFC Wimbledon.

The game drew a crowd of 1,336 to Calthorpe Park, but Fleet let themselves down on the big occasion with a string of defensive errors.

Richard Butler was the first take advantage after ten minutes and, though Fleet forced the pace in the second half, they self-destructed on 72 minutes when Rob Ursell took advantage of a mix-up at the back.

Straight from the restart substitute Martin Randall stretched the Dons' advantage before Josh Francois netted a deserved consolation for Paul Holden's men.