BASINGSTOKE Town deservedly beat 10-man Swindon Supermarine 2-0 and hence moved up to 15th in the Southern League Premier South table.

New signing Adam Everiss made his home debut in the starting line-up, while skipper Charlie Kennedy and Harry Pearse returned from injury.

The first good chance fell to the visitors as Joe Selman’s cross came off the chest of Conor McDonagh and went wide.

Town took full advantage of this and on 14 minutes they were awarded a penalty after Dean Stow’s cross into the box was pushed away by the hand of Matt Williams.

Ben Wright made no mistake from the spot as he fired the ball low into the net.

In truth, Town should have been 3-0 up in as many minutes.

The first chance saw Everiss release Smart down the right flank his cross in was met by a lovely volley by Sam Argent, but a great reflex save from Martin Horsell denied him and Argent’s rebound effort was blocked on the line by Matt Liddiard.

A minute later, Wright found Smart on the other flank and his cross in saw Deadfield fire just wide.

On 25 minutes, the first corner finally arrived, but nothing came of it and four minutes before the interval, McDonagh forced Basingstoke’s Tom McGill into his first save of the game.

After the interval, the visitors edged possession early on, but failed to really threaten with it.

In fact Town looked set to score a second on 72 minutes, when good work from Smart closed down the Supermarine goalkeeper and the ball spun out to Argent, who had an open goal to hit, but put the ball wide.

Two minutes, later Argent this time went to close down Horsell in the visitors net, but caught the goalkeeper with his challenge.

This sparked an incident which saw Horsell swing at Argent hitting his cheek bone and referee Daniel Simpson had no option but to send the goalkeeper off.

With no replacement goalkeeper on the bench, defender Liddiard went in goal.

Town took advantage of their opponents being down to 10 men and made sure of the three points.

Argent’s defence splitting pass played in Pearse and with the stand-in goalkeeper in two minds, the home midfielder made no mistake with the finish five minutes from time.

After the game, Town manager Martin Kuhl said: “I told the boys their front four were decent, but our defence played with determination and kept them out all afternoon.

“I still think we should have put away more of our chances, but I felt we deserved the win today.”

This coming Saturday, Town are at Dorchester, who are the side currently in the last relegation spot, but they are only two points behind Basingstoke.