BASHLEY almost battled back from a woeful first-half display but ultimately came up short in their 3-2 defeat to Redditch United last night. 

The Worcestershire outfit could have been out of sight at the interval as injury-hit Bash, without four first-team regulars, were ripped to shreds by United’s pace and movement.

Bash failed to heed the warning signs as Levi Oshungbure and Sam Youngs spurned presentable chances in the opening 10 minutes before Jamie Molyneaux rifled home Jermaine Hylton’s cut back from the left.

It was one-way traffic with Nic Jones pulling off a smart double stop from Molyneaux and Omari Sterling-James before somehow booting Nathan Jackson’s goalbound shot off the line via the underside of the crossbar.

However, the Bash custodian was powerless to prevent Youngs thumping home Edwin Ahenkorah’s cutback in a carbon copy of the opener on 32 minutes with the hosts seemingly on the path to self destruction.

The New Forest outfit rallied after half-time and grabbed a lifeline within five minutes of the restart when skipper Jack Odam thumped home Manny Soetan’s corner.

From there, the match opened up as Bash defender Luke Ansell skimmed the crossbar with a near-post header before Hylton forced a fingertip save from Jones.

Redditch thought they had the game wrapped up when Hylton was left free to squeeze home a low shot from the resulting corner but the lively winger handed Bash a way back with six minutes to play.

Hylton was sent off for an unnecessary two-footed lunge on Taurean Manders with Odam’s whipped free kick missing everyone and nestling inside the near post.

Ross Lloyd and Scott Joyce tried in vain to level matters late on, but joint-boss Paul Gazzard was left to rue the manner in which Bash shipped a trio of sloppy goals. 

On the first-half performance, Gazzard told the Daily Echo: “It was bad and took us back to a time I hoped we had forgotten about. We lacked belief, drive and want in our play.

“In a funny way, maybe the win last week didn’t help our cause. At times, players approached things with a different mentality and all the hard work from the past six weeks was undone.

“John (Pyatt, joint-manager) got stuck into them at half-time because they had let themselves down but we still firmly believed we could get back into the game.

“The goal gave us some belief and we had a right go in the second half but we have to learn from conceding such soft goals from corners. The third goal cost us an opportunity to get something from the game.”

Bash: Jones, Rolls (Morris, 69), Roberts, Ansell, Marden, Bulpitt, Brookes (Lloyd, 80), Soetan, Joyce, Odam, Manders. Unused subs: Gazzard, Kenna, Blackmore.

  • Christchurch will hold a pitch inspection at 3pm ahead of their home match with Brockenhurst tonight.