STUTTERING promotion chasers Bashley will be hoping to rid themselves of the curse of Kent at Chatham Town tomorrow night.

For the second week running, Barry Blankley's men had a fruitless journey to the Garden of England, crashing 1-0 on Saturday at mid-table Ashford.

The match bore all the hallmarks of the previous week's one-goal defeat at Sittingbourne. Bash struggled to play their football on a rock-hard, bumpy pitch and were floored by one lethal long ball over the top, this time in the 71st minute.

To add to their away-day blues, their Hythe-based left wing-back Mark Lisk was taken to hospital with suspected cruciate ligament damage to his left knee shortly before half-time.

It was only Bashley's fourth league defeat of the season but, with possibly the hardest run-in of any of the championship candidates, they could ill afford to drop points for a second week running against a side well outside the promotion frame.

Blankley, though, insists Bashley's destiny remains in their own hands, saying: "We've just got to aim now to win all nine of our remaining games. We've got some tough ones ahead of us but, to be honest, I'd sooner play the top sides. We seem to play better football against them."

He added: "The disappointing thing is that we've come to Ashford and let them dictate the game to us. Alright, it's a home game for them, but we were second and they're mid-table so we should have been dictating to them.

"In the first half they wanted it more than us. We played a bit better in the second half but not as well as we should have done."

Midfielder Craig Davis and substitute Paul Sales both spurned good chances for Bashley, but the match was settled when the Foresters' back three were caught out by a long ball and Adrian Stone kept his nerve to slot past keeper David Elm.