WINNING ugly was the key for Bashley as the New Forest side recorded their first victory on home soil this season.

Bash boss Steve Riley felt his side dominated their Southern League Premier Division clash against Banbury United at the Recreation Ground, but it took until the 70th-minute for the hosts to break the resistance of their visitors from North Oxfordshire.

Jeremy Tarr, who was selected as Richard Gillespie's strike partner ahead of Nic Eastham, finished off a sweeping counter attack to seal maximum points for Riley's men on Saturday.

But the Bash manager was honest in his appraisal of proceedings, admitting his new-look side had not hit the heights performance-wise, despite emerging victorious.

He said: "I think we deserved the win but we didn't play as well as we have done in the previous four games.

"The important thing was to get a home victory but there was a bit of nervousness because we'd been beaten twice at home already."

With Banbury fielding just one man in attack and setting their stall out to make things difficult, Riley thought his team got dragged into a battle, rather than raising their own standards.

"I think we went down to the level of the opposition, with no disrespect to them," he told the Daily Echo.

"We had one or two great moves but couldn't get the goal we needed to settle everyone down.

"We went close but didn't have that cutting edge.

"But we came out in the second half and forced the issue and put them under pressure.

"We deserved the win and it was an important game."

Former Cherries trainee Jordan Rose made his Bash debut, while keeper David Elm overcame injury to take his place in goal.