Bashley boss Geoff Butler is targeting experienced former Portsmouth, Bournemouth and Havant & Waterlooville front-runner Paul Wood to inject some quality into the side.

Although the Foresters have had a promising start to their Ryman Division 1 campaign, their naivety has often worried Butler and their shortcomings were exposed in Saturday's 3-1 FA Cup exit at Ashford Town (Middlesex).

Butler said: "We badly need the sort of knowledge, clout and experience that a player like Paul Wood can give us. Chris Ferrett knows him well and is going to see if he can talk him out of retirement."

Bashley found themselves a goal down after only eight minutes at Ashford when Dave Wakefield headed into his own net. The Foresters also profited from an own goal, turned in from Andy Culliford's cross, but they were well beaten on the day by the Southern Division 1 West outfit.

Butler said: "It was our worst performance of the season by a mile. We were lucky to come second!

"Ashford weren't the best, but they're big and strong and won 90 per cent of the headers. If they're typical of the Southern 1 West, you'd have to say their league is stronger than ours."

With £2,250 up for grabs from the FA prize fund, it was money Bashley could ill afford to miss out on.

Butler said: "It's a setback to every non-League club to go out of the FA Cup but, for us, it's probably a bigger setback than most. The money would have helped us enormously, but you can't rely on cup wins to stay alive.

"The players let themselves and the club down and, unfortunately, they picked the wrong day to do it."

The one bright spot for Bashley was a promising substitute's appearance from left-sided central defender Graham Mills from Team Bath.

Butler explained: "He's a Southampton lad doing a three-year college course in Bath and part of the course involves him playing football.

"But he's not getting in the Team Bath side at the moment and they're not worried about him having an extended run with us."