Bognor Regis 1, Basingstoke Town 3

INCONSISTENCY continues to blight Basingstoke Town's season, especially at the Camrose.

On Saturday, they lost to lowly visitors Hitchin but yesterday they bounced back with an excellent away win at Bognor.

The victory leaves Town three points and one slot away from an automatic place in the new Conference South set-up come May 1.

The visitors made one change to Saturday's line-up as Cristian Levis replaced Neville Roach.

Town looked on the rocks after 22 minutes, when Scott Tarr pulled up with a hamstring injury and Mark Zawadski came off the bench to take his place in goal.

Three minutes later, the young goalie was fishing the ball out of the net as Matt Russell scored. But in the second half he made two excellent saves and was not beaten again.

The visitors took just two minutes to get back on level terms as Nathan Stamp cut inside to the edge of the box to score.

Town edged in front after only a couple of minutes of the second half after Craig McAllister and Steve Hughes exchanged passes. Hughes' shot was pushed out by the Bognor 'keeper but only as far as McAllister who scored.

On the hour, Town gave themselves some breathing space as German De La Vega played a great ball down the inside-right channel to McAllister who, once inside the area, fired home.

From then on the visitors controlled the game with Zawadski gaining valuable experience before he takes over from the suspended Tarr for the final three games of the league campaign, starting against Aylesbury on Saturday.

Basingstoke Town 2, Hitchin 3

This poor result came against bottom-four side Hitchin after a roller-coaster first half on Saturday in which all five goals were scored.

Ernie Howe's side fell 2-0 down after just 11 minutes to goals the Town manager felt his defence should have dealt with.

He said: "We defended way too deeply and gave away soft goals. We got ourselves back in it only to shoot ourselves in the foot by conceding just before half-time."

On seven minutes, David Ray failed to head away Tom Neill's cross-field ball from the right, miss-timing his jump.

Hanging off Ray's shoulder, Hitchin striker Darran Hay controlled the ball and fired from an acute angle back past the on-rushing Scott Tarr into the far right corner.

Five minutes later, Jim Duffy had a free header at the back post to nod home, from almost on the dead-ball line, Stuart Maynard's inswinging free-kick from the left flank.

Town were shell-shocked, but two goals within as many minutes got them level.

Craig McAllister was the recipient of a Nathan Stamp up and under that bounced over the last defender. It gave McAllister a 20th-minute header which he took first time and looped over goalie Richard Wilmot.

Soon after, McAllister's strong, determined run took him past two players down the left wing. His centre was nonchalantly turned into his own net by Duffy, who thought his tapped clearance was going wide of the far post.

But, on the stroke of half-time, a goal of comic proportions was netted.

Glen Lamacraft burst into the area to round Tarr but couldn't get his shot away.

A Town clearance was ineffective and Ryan Nicholl turned the ball back inside the box, where it remained as ricochets and a collection of mishaps took place.

Eventually, Dean McElroy turned a shot goalwards that trickled in.

After the re-start, another foraging run from McAllister saw him get to the by-line and cross for German De La Vega. But the Argentinean somehow missed from five yards out, shooting wide.

The introduction of his fellow country-man Cristian Levis gave Town fresh impetus, but a header off the post from Levis on 81 minutes was as near as Town came to equalising for a third time.

Speaking afterwards, McAllister said: "Our first half was awful. No games are a banker, but we fancied this one against a team near the bottom who have let in over 80 goals.

"The boys were buzzing after the 3-0 win at Heybridge last week, but we've been so inconsistent this season and it's cost us again."

Basingstoke Town: Scott Tarr, David Ray, Neville Stamp, German De La Vega (sub Cristian Levis 76min), Jason Bristow, Ricky Allaway (sub Ollie Burgess 57min), Nathan Stamp, Stephen Hughes, Craig McAllister, Neville Roach (sub Alex Ewin 81min), Sergio Torres. Subs not used: Mark Zawadski, Steve Hemmings.