It was a case of so near and yet so far for brave Bashley last night as they slipped to a 1-0 defeat at new Eastern Division leaders King's Lynn.

The Foresters made the long trek to Norfolk without Mark Jones (work), Mark Lisk (family commitments) and Richard Gillespie (ankle injury) and yet held out until the 53rd minute when Lee Stevenson followed up a shot that had rebounded off the bar with a header into the far corner.

It was rough luck on Bashley, who now have it all to do to sneak Premier Division football next season. An automatic top-seven promotion place is now beyond them and they have lost their game in hand over eighth-placed Banbury United, who remain three points ahead of them in the play-off race with two games remaining.

Bashley travel to Ashford on Saturday and wind up the season at home to form side Sittingbourne, while Banbury host promoted Folkestone Invicta and then travel to second-to-bottom Erith & Belvedere.

Bash boss John Robson admitted: "A lot's got to happen in the last two games, but we gave a good account of ourselves against King's Lynn with an understrength side.

"I took three youngsters up and one of them, a lad called Mo (Toure Mamadousa), did superbly for about 65 minutes playing wide on the left.

"King's Lynn didn't create too much and we had one great chance through young Stuart Cannie, but it was on his right peg and he didn't connect well."

Salisbury City edged up to fifth with a 0-0 home stalemate against third-placed Histon, but Nick Holmes's men had enough chances to win.

Ex-Saint Adam Wallace spurned a golden opportunity on 40 minutes, sending a free header over after Aaron Cook had nodded on Craig Davis's long throw.

Wallace also had a goal disallowed in stoppage-time and after the break it was Salisbury - and Davis in par-ticular - who ran the show.

Another menacing long throw led to Cook's back header being cleared off the line and then Steve Strong had a far-post header blocked from Davis's free- kick.

Davis was then foiled by keeper Paul Barber who, in the 86th minute, miraculously pushed away Wayne Turk's powerful left-foot shot from outside the area.