Basingstoke Town 1, Welling United 3

AN abysmal first-half performance saw Town go down to their sixth defeat of the season and slip into the Conference South relegation zone.

The team's leaky defence conceded a goal within 60 seconds of the kick-off on Saturday, a midfield, lacking the suspended Francis Quarm, looked weak and the forward line were toothless.

The first half showing was so poor that Vines threw Neville Roach on in place of Andrew Ottley after just 41 minutes and switched to a 3-4-3 system.

These changes and a half-time barrage from the manager obviously had an effect as the team played much better after the break, though they had given the visitors too much of a head-start to get anything out of the game.

With Hayes and Thurrock winning, Town now lie second from bottom.

Speaking after the game, Vines said he was disappointed that the team had not been able to build on the previous week's victory over Bognor.

"I had been thinking all week that today was more important than last week because it is easy to win one game," he said.

"You have got to put together a string of results and get some momentum going. The first half performance today ruined that.

"We may have been unlucky in the past but not today. It was an awful first-half showing and we conceded sloppy goals."

Basingstoke made a terrible start to the game, going a goal down after just 50 seconds when a Jamie Day through-ball beat the entire defence and found Danny Kedwell. He took the ball round Stuart Searle just outside the penalty area and slotted into the empty net.

Welling made it 2-0 just five minutes later when Joe Dolan put the ball into his own net trying to clear a low Kedwell cross six yards out while under pressure from Martin Carthy.

Town barely had the ball throughout the first half and the only surprise about the third goal was that it was the 38th minute before Welling scored it.

Kedwell robbed Dolan on the left edge of the area, bounced off a couple of half-hearted tackles as he cut inside and hit a tame shot from 18 yards that beat Searle to his right.

Vines responded by throwing Roach on and the team were improved in the second half and had the majority of the play, but their finishing lacked precision.

James Taylor did manage to get a consolation goal, calmly beating Welling 'keeper Jamie Turner from six yards after Cristian Levis flicked on a David Ray free-kick. However, many other chances either missed the target or were directed straight at the 'keeper.

Vines singled Searle out for criticism, saying he felt his 'keeper could have done better with two of the goals.

"Stuart did not have a good starting position for the first goal and was also slow to react when the ball was put through," he said. "It was the first minute so he cannot say he was tired and should have been concentrating.

"I also felt he was at fault for the third goal. Joe Dolan tried to play a bit too much in the situation and let the striker get past him but the shot was weak and Stuart should really have made a better fist of saving it."

The manager added that he would think about playing three up front again following the second-half performance and said he hopes to bring in one or two new players from professional clubs before the weekend's FA Cup game against Lymington and New Milton.

Basingstoke Town: Stuart Searle, David Ray, Joe Bruce, Jason Bristow, Joe Dolan, Simion Howell, Andrew Ottley (sub Neville Roach 41min), Ben Surey, Cristian Levis, James Taylor, Matthew Warner. Subs (not used): Joe Harris, Ben Wright, Ashlee Jones, Danny Brown.
Welling United: Jamie Turner, Mark Goodfellow, John Guest, Des Boayeng (sub Ronayn Benjamin 73min), Chris Moore, Ben Lewis, Matt Bodkin (sub Luke Holmes 71min), Danny Kedwell (sub Akwasi Edusei 87min), Martin Carthy, Ellis Green, Jamie Day. Subs (not used): Keith Rowland, Paul Hyde.