Ashton Prime 2-4 Paddock Wood Youth & Junior

An injury-ridden Ashton Prime battled bravely before losing 4-2 to Paddock Wood in a fiery encounter at Bayham.

With Goldsmith's persistent ankle ligament problems ruling him out, the Ashton Prime treatment room is now full to bursting point with Bendall, Jagniaszek, skipper Skovborg-Hansen and Taylor - to name but a few - all sidelined.

A trio of emergency signings were required to bolster the Prime line-up, with Lower making his debut at CB and Bishop adding his class in midfield. Mellors started on the bench - but was later to make a dramatic entrance.

Prime came under intense early pressure and needed Gilbert and Lower to be alert to thrawt wave after wave of attacks from the visitors.

The goal eventually came when a long throw was flicked on and a goal-mount scramble resulted in a simple finish.

Worse was to follow 10 minutes later when an inswinging corner inexplicably deceived the hapless Leigh and flew into the net.

However, Prime then managed to get a foothold in the game with Ellis and Matthews battling hard in midfield to allow Bishop time to exert himself on proceedings.

Barr's 25 yarder flew just over the bar as Prime pressed for a goal.

5 minutes before the break, Matthews' angled free kick was flicked on by Bishop and Smith-Foreman was there to poach his 2nd goal in 2 games.

Prime started the second half strongly and forced a string of corners. But no sooner had Mellors replaced Whiting, Prime conceded a vital 3rd goal on the break, with Leigh helpless to stop the Wood striker slotting into the roof of the net.

Prime heads dropped for the first time in the game, and a slack clearance from Leigh presented Wood with the 4th goal which looked to have wrapped things up.

But a moment of madness from the Paddock Wood winger resulted in a straight red card for swearing repetitively at the ref when a throw was rightly awarded to Prime instead of the free-kick he craved.

This gave Prime a much needed boost, but despite Bishop's craft in midfield and the full backs Barr and Leaver having impressive games, it looked unlikely that Prime would unlock the Paddock Wood defence.

That was until Mellors got the ball just outside the box on the right hand side. He shimmied inside one man, jinked past another and then curled an unstoppable left footed strike into the far corner.

Further pressure followed from Prime, but the final whistle denied them the chance to get back into the game - to the obvious relief of the table-topping visitors.

Prime Man of the Match: Alex Bishop - Always seemed to have time on the ball and worked tirelessly.