RICHARD Gillespie shrugged off his recent back problems to get Bashley's Ryman Division 1 campaign off to an encouraging start at Croydon.

Having lost seasoned campaigners like Mark Lisk and Mark Jones this summer, the Foresters' faithful were understandably concerned that new boss Geoff Butler would be too heavily reliant on youth.

But the young guns blended superbly with reliable old heads like Graeme Gee, Mat Jones and Danny Gibbons on Saturday to pull off a deserved 2-1 win in south London.

With Butler away at a wedding, reserve/youth boss Paul Darke took charge along with Bashley's prospective midfield signing Danny Bailey, who introduced two London-based youngsters to Saturday's squad.

One of them, 19-year-old former Bury defender Andrew Julius, had an eventful day.

Having made the error that led to Ashley Martin cancelling Gillespie's 30th-minute opener for Bashley, he atoned by setting up the winner.

Julius's goalbound header from a corner was intercepted by the livewire Gillespie, who diverted it into the net.

Another Bailey-coached youngster, striker Saleem Grant, went on for the last eight minutes and Sayem Kabir, a Southampton Institute student once of with Eastleigh and Havant & Waterlooville, deputised well for right-back Paul Gazzard, who is serving a six-match suspension for an alleged racial remark.

Darke said: "We can't get carried away with one good result, but our experienced players mixed well with the younger boys. I thought our experience as a former Southern League club gave us the edge over Croydon.

"We were physically stronger and technically better than they were."

Ironically, Newport IoW manager said the complete opposite after being outplayed 2-0 by Croydon Athletic at St George's Park.

He felt that the famed passing ethic of an established Ryman League club was too much for his former Dr Martens side.

Linington said: "Croydon played some beautiful stuff, whereas our old league was much more direct.

"We did okay for half an hour, but they were a very good side and I reckon they'll be right up there."

Newport were unlucky to have Adam Barsdell's brilliant 35-yard volley disallowed for offside and they wasted a good free-kick opportunity when Barsdell was floored on the edge of the box.

Matthew Fowler punished their wastefulness with Croydon's 39th-minute opener and James Hall added a free header late on.

Fleet Town's good start was tarnished 4-1 at Hastings, where a Steve Ringwood hat-trick and single by Chris Honey saw them off. Richard Mealey bagged a consolation.