EX-SAINT Dean Blake produced a stunning early goal to fire Havant & Waterlooville within touching distance of the Dr Martens Premier Division summit last night.

A 1-0 win at Steve Claridge's Weymouth puts the happy Hawks second in the table, level on points with new leaders Crawley, who triumphed 5-2 at Cambridge City.

With barely five minutes gone at the Wessex Stadium, Blake cut inside and bent in a beauty of a strike from the corner of the 18-yard box.

Hawks almost had a second later in the half, but another ex-Saint, Luke Byles, was penalised for an apparent push as he got his head to Blake's free kick.

H&W co-boss Mick Jenkins couldn't have been happier with his players. He said: "I felt we took the game to Weymouth and we defended well to nullify the threat of Steve Claridge and Luke Nightingale up front.

"I'm proud of the team tonight. To a man, they gave 100 percent and it's been a fantastic four days for us after beating Dorchester in Dorset on Saturday."

Havant's joy will runneth over tonight if Bobby De St Croix's under-18s succeed in knocking Brentford out of the FA Youth Cup. Kick-off is 7.30 at Westleigh Park.

l Basingstoke Town were left ruing a disallowed Craig McAllister goal in the wake of last night's 2-1 Ryman Premier defeat at Hayes.

Having taken a 15th-minute lead when loanee Matt Warner's cross went in via a deflection, Stoke looked to have opened clear daylight between the teams when McAllister found the net in the 37th minute only to have the effort mysteriously ruled out.

Hayes levelled three minutes later and Stoke manager Ernie Howe admitted: "It was disappointing to go in 1-1 at half-time because we'd had a big percentage of the game. They shaded it in the second half and scored, but there were a couple of situations we could have done more with."