WINCHESTER City never recovered from having a stonewall penalty turned down in the opening exchanges at Bishops Cleeve yesterday.

Nothing clicked for the Citizens from there on in as they stumbled to a 1-0 defeat that leaves them with a mountain to climb if they are to reach the Southern One South & West play-offs.

“We arrived in good spirits and in the first minute we had a nailed-on penalty not given,” said manager Ian Saunders.

“Craig Feeney picked the ball up outside the left of the area and rode a foul tackle. The ref played advantage and then Feeney was wiped out inside the box, but the ref took it back to the first foul!

“We’ve then conceded a poor goal and, from there, we couldn’t get out of gear.

"I can’t fault the lads for the effort they put in, but we rarely troubled their keeper. In fact I don’t think we had an actual shot on target the whole game which is not how we’ve been going about our business.”

Cleeve’s winner arrived on 34 minutes when Olly Butler’s cross set up Joe Bates to score.

“I’m taking nothing away from Bishops Cleeve, but that was their first home win since November and, if we’re to achieve what we want to achieve, we’ve got to go there and get a result,” said Saunders.

“From the high of beating Evesham (4-1) last week, this was the other end of the spectrum, which is why we’re ninth in the table rather than fifth or sixth.”

One shining light for City was a promising debut from new defensive signing Lewis Hyde, who previously played for Saunders at Petersfield Town.

“He looked like he’d been playing for us for years,” said Saunders. “He’ll definitely be a crowd favourite in the short time he’s with us, until the end of the season, and we’ll see where we go from there.”

City have also completed the signings of their former skipper/centre back Leigh Mills and AFC Totton winger Nick Watts. Both are expected to feature in the squad for Tuesday's (7.45pm) home game against Bideford.

“Bideford went above us (into eighth) and we’ve got to beat the sides around us,” stressed Saunders.

“We must all remain positive and try and win as many games as possible, but we are making life difficult for ourselves.”