Barry Blankley is determined Bashley will finish their season on a high after seeing their fading Eastern Division promotion dream smashed to smithereens by Eastbourne Borough on Saturday.

Needing to win their remaining four games to stand even an outside hope of Premier Division football, Bash were soundly hammered 6-1 by the league leaders - only their second home league defeat in 15 months.

Blankley admitted: "We were looking for one of our best performances of the season and unfortunately we produced one of our worst.

"I hate losing any game, but it was the manner in which we lost this one that disappointed me so much.

"Eastbourne weren't 6-1 better than us, but we conceded such sloppy goals.

"For 20 minutes or so we were running the show, but then it all went wrong.

"You work so hard all year and then your whole season hinges on 60-odd minutes and suddenly you could finish down in seventh or eighth place."

The signs looked good for the Foresters when Eastbourne's former Newport IoW defender John Price volleyed into his own net to put Bashley ahead, but an uncharacteristic mistake from Aaron Cook let in Andy Ducille for the equaliser and then Matt Smart's free-kick deflected in as Bash were still organising their wall.

The loss of influential defender Mat Jones to a hamstring injury did not help Bashley's cause and Eastbourne went for the jugular with second-half goals from Scott Ramsay (2), Dave Adams and Mark Goodwin.

Bash still have the Hampshire Senior Cup final to look forward to on May 8 and will be itching to put one over on local rivals Salisbury at the Raymond McEnhill Stadium this afternoon (3pm).

The fourth-placed Whites are out to avenge February's 3-1 defeat at The Rec, but Blankley promised: "We're going to get the lads there early today to have a chat. We've got a cup final coming up and we've got to make sure the season doesn't go flat.

"I'm looking forward to playing Salisbury. It'll be two good footballing sides on a decent surface in front of a good Bank Holiday crowd.

"I'm glad this game's come around so quickly. It means we can get Saturday's result out of our system in two days."

Salisbury, who still have an outside chance of promotion, are expecting a Bashley backlash.

Manager Nick Holmes said: "If Bashley have got some pride about them, as I know Barry has, they will come here fully wound up to make sure that a result like Saturday's doesn't happen again.

Whites' experienced defender Andy Cook should hopefully be fit despite going off again at Fleet on Saturday with medial knee ligament problems.

Newport IoW were beaten by the last kick of the match in a 3-2 home defeat by in-form Tonbridge, but manager Steve Tate was still full of Easter cheer.

Having hit back to level at 2-2 through a Gareth Keeping header, Port fell victim to the elements in the dying seconds when a Nick Barnes cross caught in the wind and sailed past keeper Joe McCormack.

"Everyone knew when he hit it that it would end up in the top corner, but I've no complaints, it was a cracking game," said Tate. "I was delighted with our commitment and how we tried to play football against a Tonbridge side who had won six of their last seven games."

Young striker Chris Bridges had broken the deadlock for Newport in the 37th minute from a cross by Jamie O'Rourke, but Paul Emblem equalised on the stroke of half-time for Tonbridge and then crossed for Ray Powell to net a 63rd-minute tap-in.

Tate, who takes his side to Burnham today (3pm), has parted company with assistant manager Bunny Warwick.