Ten-man Winchester City suffered a shock defeat at AFC Newbury - and failed to score in a league match for the first time in more than two years.

The FA Vase finalists slipped to second place behind Wimborne Town, who drew at Hamble ASSC, after suffering their first defeat in 12 games and failing to score for the first time in 83 league outings.

Director of football David Malone had only just arrived at Abbotts Barton when, as a Hampshire League Premier division side, Winchester drew a blank against Poole Town in March 2002.

And on Saturday he saw Gary Green, who started the match on the bench with 71-goal Andy Forbes and Matthew Bicknell, sent off with after retaliating to a foul by Dean Mildenhall after winger Lee Chudy had headed the only goal on 75 minutes.

Malone said: "The pitch was poor, the wind took a bit of a grip and neither side played well.

"We were distinctly below par, we were at Newbury but weren't at the races. They were nothing special, the goal came from their only good move of the match, but we were lacklustre and came down to their standard.

"Fortunately Wimborne only drawing means that it doesn't make too much difference but we can't afford to drop too many more points."

Winchester, who have three games in hand on Wimborne, now have four Wessex League games to play in seven days, an unprecedented fixture pile-up even by last year's standards. Tomorrow night they take on Christchurch, the first of three home games in five days, with Portland and Totton also visiting Abbotts Barton before Neil Hards takes his side to Hamble on Easter Monday.

A furious Malone added: "Four games in seven days is an absolute nonsense, professional players would refuse to do it. The most we played last year was three in a week but the league want to finish on April 27th so that the groundsmen has longer to get things together for next season. But that doesn't make sense because there are cup finals to be played on Wessex grounds up until mid-May."

Left-back Bicknell (calf) will struggle to play at all over the Easter period.

But Winchester have boosted their squad by signing striker Jamie Laidlaw, the son of former Pompey captain Joe, and midfielder Gary Funnell, the son of former Saints striker Tony, from Chichester City and Salisbury City respectively.

Winger Stuart Cooper has also signed from Dorchester Town.