What Bashley manager John Robson wouldn't have given to have had a Gary Green, Taffy Richardson or Wayne Turk in his side this season.

The Foresters' last hopes of Premier Division football disintegrated in a 2-1 defeat at Ashford Town on Saturday and Robson believes it was lack of know-how rather than lack of ability that ultimately cost them a stab at the eighth-place promotion play-offs.

After a purple patch of away wins at Rothwell, Folkestone and Tonbridge, Bash have hit a downward spiral of three straight league defeats and Robson reflected: "Having put ourselves in a position to achieve what we wanted to, we've just let it go.

"Don't get me wrong, the players all tried hard on Saturday, but I knew in first ten or 15 minutes that we weren't going to get anything out of it.

"Ability goes hand in hand with attitude and, looking at the squads Salisbury and Eastleigh have got, I don't think they're necessarily better players, but their whole make-up is different.

"In the old days you had players like Jimmy Case and Billy Bremner who could destroy the opposition and yet play a bit at the same time.

"Wayne Turk at Salisbury is the best youngster in the business locally and, of the established players, Gary Green at Winchester is another who does that job superbly, as does Taffy at Eastleigh.

"Long-term we've had more good results than we've had bad at Bashley, but we've had bad results at the wrong time, like we did on Saturday, and we've lacked that bit of knowledge to put it right."

Bashley fell behind to a 28th minute Joby Thorogood goal and were hit again by Barry Gardner shortly before half-time.

The introduction of subs Richard Gillespie and Toure 'Mo' Mamadousa livened the Foresters up as Robson went for broke with three up front, but Gillespie's stunning finish in stoppage-time was too little too late.

With a new Conference 2 tier being added to the pyramid next season, Bashley have effectively been relegated - they are now three steps away from the Conference proper, as opposed to two.

The same goes for Newport IoW who, like Bash, are likely to be playing in the new-look Southern League West next season.

Newport ended their home campaign on a high by beating seventh-placed Stamford 2-0.

Newport's short-corner routine again reaped dividends when Danny Hatcher rattled an initial effort against the post and John McCormack buried the follow-up in the 62nd minute.

Fourteen minutes later a defensive error let in inspirational skipper Simon Pilcher for number two.

In recent weeks Port have beaten Tonbridge and drawn with Salisbury on the Island and manager John Linington said: "We always do well against the top teams.

"They come here thinking they can just turn up and win and we probably do the same against the lower sides, but it doesn't happen!

"We defended well in the first half and gave Stamford no room to play and then we raised our game in the second half."