Basingstoke Town 1 Maidenhead United 2

MANAGER Ernie Howe was upbeat about his Town team's performance despite another defeat, at the hands of visiting Maidenhead.

Having slammed his team for under achieving in midweek after their FA Trophy exit, the commitment was back in the Town line-up and they were unlucky not to get something out of the game.

Howe said: "It was just not going to be our day. We didn't get any luck and they did.

"It was good to see Wilko (Paul Wilkinson) and Matt Hayward back and I think Sam Keevil looked good when he came on."

Keevil - who last season scored a hat-trick for Fulham against Town in a pre-season friendly - came on just before half-time as Stuart Girdler's nightmare season continued when he pulled up with a hamstring injury in his right leg.

The first chance of the first half brought the opening goal as Tom Hickey's through-ball deflected kindly off Matt Elverston into the path of Lee Channell, playing him onside, and he made no mistake with finish.

A minute later, the excellent Wilkinson shot over from 30 yards and soon after Girdler shot wide.

With both Lisk and Girdler giving Town good width on both flanks it looked only a matter of time before they would equalise.

The goal that brought the scores level came on 29 minutes as Girdler's cross saw Tim Cook send Richard Newbery crashing to the floor.

It was left to Elan Efad to coolly slot home the spot-kick with a low strike into the bottom corner for his first Basingstoke Town goal.

This seemed to upset the visitors and for the rest of the half they gave the referee stick for every decision against them and, on 34 minutes, there was a major scuffle which involved nearly every player on the pitch.

It all started as two Basingstoke players tried to get the ball out from under an opponent.

Matt Elverson was booked for Town along with Maidenhead's Hickey, who lasted only another six minutes before being taken off by his manager to save him being sent off.

After the break, a nice one-two between Newbery and Keevil saw the latter shoot just wide and at that point Town looked set to go on and win as they were playing all the football.

However, they were caught out when a long cross-field ball from Obi Ulasi found Channell and he scored to make it 2-1 after 61 minutes.

Five minutes later, a ball deflected into the path of substitute Robert Saunders but Tarr pushed away his shot.

A nice jinking run from Elad saw him push the ball into Jason Eaton but his shot was cleared off the line by Andy Rose.

From then on, Maidenhead defended in numbers and Town were just unable to break them down to get the all-important equaliser.

Tomorrow night, Town travel to Gravesend for a second round tie in the Isthmian League Cup.

Basingstoke Town: Tarr, Honor, Elverson, Bristow, Elad, Lisk, Wilkinson, Girdler (sub Keevil 45min), David (sub Hayfield 79min), Newbery (sub Sills 73min).

Maidenhead: Barnard, Rose, Connor, Ferdinand (sub Saunders 58min), Jeffrey, Hickey (sub Levene 40min), Cook, Ibe, Channell (sub Allen 75min), Kelly, Ulasi.