RICHARD GILLESPIE celebrated signing an extension to his Bashley contract with a blistering display of goalscoring at Croydon Athletic.

The 19-year-old Romsey sharp-shooter struck two early goals and two late ones to earn the on-song Foresters a 5-3 victory which, at times, had looked beyond them.

Manager Geoff Butler confessed: "Without Gilly we would have lost that match. They say goals change games, and his finishing was the difference between the sides.

"All four of his goals were magnificent. There wasn't an easy one or a flukey one amongst them."

Showing off his full range of finishing skills, Gillespie struck twice in the opening ten minutes - first with a power-packed header and next with a left-foot shot deftly squeezed between the keeper and the near post.

But that was the highlight of an otherwise messy first-half performance by fifth-placed Bashley who, having succumbed to a terrific Danny Bolt strike on 30 minutes, were lucky to be holding on 2-1 up at the break.

Butler's worst fears materialised when Matt Fowler levelled early in the second half, but a glorious Chris Ferrett strike nosed the Foresters ahead again only for Adrian Toppin to hit back a minute later for 3-3.

With David Elm looking low on confidence in the Bash goal, Butler boldly brought on reserve keeper Stacey Harper who kept Croydon at bay until Gillespie sank them with another double whammy.

First he came off the back post to volley in Ferrett's corner from the right and then he smacked home Bashley's fifth in the 89th minute following a clever dummy by strike partner Danny Gibbons.

"After Richard's early goals, we looked a shambles in the first half. It was our worst performance of the season," said Butler. But to be fair to the lads, they worked ever so hard and dug in even when we were awful. These lads don't know when they're beaten and it was their commitment that kept us in there and got us a result."

As a mark of gratitude, Butler is letting the players off training tomorrow and treating them to a team-bonding night of snooker, pool and darts.

Newport remain bottom of the Ryman 1 table, but John Linington's men finally got a slice of the luck that had deserted them in Saturday's 3-3 draw at Dulwich Hamlet.

When Dulwich debutant Emil Dushku made it 3-1 with eight minutes of normal time remaining, the Islanders looked down and out.

But then home keeper Danny Harwood dropped a shot from Dave Greening over his head and, as Newport ran riot in the closing stages, the panic-stricken Harwood miskicked to gift Island skipper Simon Pilcher a 90th-minute equaliser.

According to Linington, a point was no more than his side deserved. He said: "We had enough chances at the end to have won the game. We should have had a penalty when the keeper pulled Dave Greening's legs from under him and right at the death Ashley Wright got pushed in the back just as he was about to head the ball, but instead of blowing for a penalty the ref blew for full-time instead."

Greening had earlier lobbed Port back on terms following Dave Richards' opener for Dulwich, only for Charlie Side to restore the Londoners' lead.