NON-LEAGUE ROUND-UP
Truro City's two-year stay in Blue Square Bet South came to an end in controversial fashion with yesterday's 2-2 draw against Basingstoke Town at Treyew Road.
Needing a win to have any remote hope of avoiding the drop, they were denied victory by a disputed late equaliser from the visitors.
Goals by Andy Watkins and skipper Jake Ash, before and after an equaliser from Wes Daly, had put City 2-1 up with a quarter of an hour left. Then Basingstoke's Delano Sam-Yorke seemed to handle the ball before finding the net with an accomplished finish, but the goal was allowed to stand and that was how it stayed.
City cannot escape a place in the bottom three and relegation back to the Southern League – unless other off-the-field factors come into play.
It was tough on Truro, who have had to endure a traumatic season, though their fate has been inevitable for many weeks, if not for much longer, as player-manager Lee Hodges admitted. He said: "I think we probably knew what to expect even before the start of the season. But the main thing is that the club is still going.
"Full credit to the players, they have kept fighting and it did not seem like relegation in the dressing room afterwards. Now we will try and get as many points as we can in our last six games."
Bideford drew 0-0 for a second home Evo-Stik League Southern Premier Division match in a row when yesterday's game against Frome Town finished goalless at the Sports Ground.
Sean Downing and Kevin Squire both saw stoppage-time efforts cleared off the line as the north Devon side were denied maximum points.
Sean Joyce's Robins slipped a place to 16th in the table but moved a point further away from relegation as second-from-bottom Bedworth United lost 2-0 at Barwell.
In Division One South and West, new Tiverton Town striker Kyle Bassett scored for a second match in succession but could not stop the Yellows going down to a 3-1 defeat at Clevedon Town.
Bassett's 40th-minute goal levelled the game at 1-1 at half-time at the Hand Stadium but second-half goals from Aron Robins (48 minutes) and Dan Williams (88) clinched a win for the hosts. George Brimson had put the Seasiders ahead on 25 minutes.
The most eye-catching result for Devon's Toolstation Western League clubs was Buckland Athletic's 4-1 win at Wells City. Jamie Mudge (with two goals), Danny Gaze and Chris Wright were Buckland's scorers in Somerset.
