Billericay Town's flu-racked side looked very much one degree under as they slumped to Ryman League Premier Division defeat at struggling Basingstoke on Saturday.

It was Billericay's third defeat in an eight-day spell and they were completely below par as their hosts collected a win which let them climb out of the bottom three.

The New Lodge side went into this game having won their three previous away games without conceding a goal. But they made the trip with a warning from manager Gary Calder that their hosts, battling against the big drop, would fight all the way to push their bid for safety.

That is how it proved. Basingstoke took advantage of an early and somewhat fortuitous goal to take control and to pick up a deserved success over opposition who again badly missed the services of front runner Colin Simpson, still sidelined by hamstring trouble.

At the back, Russell Penn was forced to sit out on the subs' bench with the flu bug that has affected quite a few in the Billericay camp this week and never got involved in the action.

Certainly Billericay will need to improve on this showing when they tackle unbeaten Division Three side Aveley at New Lodge tomorrow aiming for a place in the last eight of the Essex Senior Cup.

Then, in the League, they take on improving basement side Heybridge Swifts at home a week today (3pm).

Saturday's proceedings started brightly enough for Billericay with Justin Gentle forcing home goalkeeper Clive Lyttle into a fourth-minute save and Kirk Game hitting the top of the bar with his effort after ten minutes.

However, a minute later, Billericay were behind. Goalkeeper Gavin King raced out to meet a Chris Moore back pass, but only managed to knock the ball against opposition front-runner Paul Wilkinson.

The Basingstoke man then won the race for the loose ball with the keeper and was able to shoot home into an empty net.

Three minutes before half-time it was 2-0. With the referee's attention being attracted by a flag-waving assistant, midfield play was stopped and Basingstoke were awarded a free-kick deep in the opposition half.

They forced a corner from the set-piece and man-of-the-match Steve Harris was left clear to head home.

Six minutes after the break Steve Blaney was foiled by Lyttle when he hit a 25-yard effort, but, despite introducing two subs - winger Alan Harding and striker Paul Barnett - Billericay rarely looked like rescuing a miserable afternoon.

In fact, King twice had to make good saves to stop Basingstoke going further in front. Then Tim Sills shot across goal for the host outfit with no-one able to get a final touch.

Gary Henty did shoot wide in the closing stages for Billericay, but generally this was an afternoon to forget for the visitors.

However, it could be the day that Basingstoke, under the managership of ex-Fulham favourite Ernie Howe, started their bid to escape the drop in earnest.

Converted for the new archive on 19 November 2001. Some images and formatting may have been lost in the conversion.