NEWPORT IOW are staring down the barrel of Ryman 1 relegation again after taking a 5-0 caning at Cray Wanderers.

To compound the gloom, Ashford Town pulled off a 3-2 home win over Tooting & Mitcham to hoist themselves out of the drop zone and dump the Islanders second-to-bottom instead.

Port will now be keeping a wary eye on tomorrow's basement showdown between 20th-placed Banstead, who are level with them on 30 points, and Dorking, a point better off.

With four games remaining, Newport boss John Linington remains convinced his side can stay up but said: "We're going to have to put in a lot more effort than we did in the first half at Cray.

"We knew they were a well-equipped side, having beaten us 6-0 at home, but their first four goals were all down to poor defending.

"They got to all the second balls quicker than we did.

"I'm more disappointed than after any game this season because we honestly went there thinking we could get something.

"Walton & Hersham beat Wimbledon 4-0 on Saturday, yet they didn't come close to scoring that many against us last week when we were unlucky to lose 1-0.

"Having signed Fraser Quirke, we went to Cray with more attacking intention but, unfortunately, it didn't materialise.

"Fraser clipped the bar and Dave Greening had a chance, but nothing came off for us against a physically stronger side."

Fleet took a giant stride towards safety with a 2-1 home win over Corinthian Casuals, who host Newport next Saturday. Fit-again ex-England international Andy Sinton was the architect of both goals.

First his corner was headed home by Southampton-based skipper Andy Darnton then, after Chris Horwood had levelled, he set up New Zealander Tinoi Christie to bag the winner six minutes from time.

Bashley - already assured of mid-table safety - were soundly beaten 3-0 at home by Bromley.

The scoreline came as no real surprise to manager Geoff Butler who again had to get by with a team comprised almost exclusively of raw youngsters.

Skipper Chris Ferrett was ruled out with a ulcerated eye, while promising young midfielder Chris Knowles was playing a five-a-side college tournament in Barcelona.

"As far as senior players were concerned, we had Matt Parnell, Paul Gazzard and the goalkeeper David Elm and that was it," said Butler.

"All things considered we did okay. We were 1-0 down after three minutes - I blame the linesman for that.

"We had a chance to clear, but Mika Dronyk's lost it and as their fella's knocked a diagonal ball across, the linesman's put his flag up and then quickly put it down again.

"They carried on and scored and afterwards the linesmen and the referee all stuck together and said the flag hadn't gone up, but it had and that didn't help our cause.

"We were 2-0 down after 18 minutes and you started to think it could be ten, but we didn't disgrace ourselves. It's all a learning curve for these young lads."