Yate hit bottom with games running out

A RUN of ten successive defeats has seen Yate Town sink to the bottom of the Southern League Premier Division South.

The Bluebells finished March in deep trouble, nine points from safety with just five games left to play.

Most damaging were the home defeats to relegation rivals Hartley Wintney and North Leigh at the beginning of the month.

Yate had gone into the Hartley Wintney match on March 4 aiming to stop a losing run that had already stretched to six games at Plymouth Parkway the previous weekend.

But a single second-half goal was enough for the visitors to take the points - and they would move above the Bluebells on goal difference later in March courtesy of a point at home to play-off contenders Poole Town.

North Leigh were the next visitors to Lodge Road the following weekend, and scored two goals in the opening 25 minutes.

Yate fell further behind in the 70th minute before substitute Zak Drew - who has since left to join Frome Town - pulled a goal back within five minutes of coming on, in off the post from a tight angle.

But it was not enough, and the Oxfordshire side leapfrogged the Bluebells, before pulling further away with a shock 2-0 win over league leaders Weston-

Zak Drew scored Yate's consolation in their 3-1 home defeat to relegation rivals North Leigh.

Picture: B.East Photography super-Mare a fortnight later.

After the match Yate's Kyle Tooze, who had been unlucky to see a shot hit the bar and bounce off the line after beating the keeper, wrote on Twitter that the side's performance had been "simply not good enough", adding: "Have to keep believing we can get out of this."

An away trip to mid-table Beaconsfield Town ended in a heartbreaking 3-2 stoppage time defeat, with the hosts scoring in the 91st minute after debutant Lucas Tomlinson and Ben McLean, with a header from a deep cross, had kept the Bluebells in contention for at least a point almost to the end.

Yate have continued to make signings to aid their cause, with 27-year-old former Hereford, Taunton and Weston-superMare Lewis Hall, a Bristol City academy product, joining from Swindon Supermarine just in time to make his debut against Bracknell Town.

But a goal in each half from the promotion-chasing Berkshire side meant Yate ended the month with another home defeat and facing a massive task to stay up.

Four of their five remaining fixtures in April are against top-half sides in fifth-placed Chesham, Metropolitan Police (7th), Merthyr Town (9th) and Swindon Supermarine (6th), before they travel to thirdbottom Harrow Borough for the last match of the season.