CHRIS Ferrett believes Bashley turned in one of their worst performances of the season and were deservedly punished by a well organised Bedford outfit.

Five days earlier, the New Forest outfit had hit the heights by hammering Weymouth 5-1 at the Recreation Ground – their biggest win of the season.

But Bash frustratingly failed to repeat that performance as they slipped to a crushing 5-2 defeat in front of their own fans.

It was Ferrett’s side’s heaviest reverse of the campaign and left them six points adrift of a play-off place, when victory would have meant they were only three off a top five place.

Player-coach Ferrett, who watched from the sidelines as he completed a two-match ban, said: “It was a missed opportunity and everyone knew it.

“It shows we definitely still have a lot to do if we want to get into the play-offs.

“We’ve done ever so well since Dave Allen, Ryan Hill and Mike Spinney came along to compete with the better teams in the league with bigger budgets.

“After our poor start to the season we’ve always been playing catch up. We’ll never say never about promotion though.

“We know it’ll be an uphill battle to get into the play-offs so we’ll just take each week as it comes.”

Ferrett, who saw Ryan Hill smash in a 30-yard free-kick to make it 1-1 in the 57th minute before his side slumped 5-1 behind, added: “Almost our whole team underperformed against Bedford. Only David Elm came out with any credit.

“You might get away with one or two underperforming, but not eight or nine at once.

“It was a poor 90 minutes, our worst of the season. We got ourselves back in it and thought we might go on and win but six minutes later Bedford were back in front again.

“We didn’t take the opportunity after we’d made it 1-1.

“Full credit to Bedford though. They weren’t the best team, but they were well organised. They won a lot of individual battles with Bashley players.

“Our standard against Weymouth was high but it was pretty much as low as it could be against Bedford.”

Bashley: Elm, R Hill, Gazzard (Town 67), Middleton, Whitley, Collins (Mead 60), T Hill, Dave Allen, Spinney (Parnell 75), Gamble, Smith. Unused subs: Prodomo, Brookes.