Cobham 2, Badshot Lea 1

FORWARD-thinking Badshot Lea boss Gavin Smith is looking for an immediate reaction from his team after tasting defeat for the first time since December.

The Baggies were beaten 2-1 at mid-table Cobham on Saturday to end a handy six-game unbeaten run that stretched back to before Christmas.

Trailing 2-0 after a “lazy” first-half performance, Lea pulled a goal back when Lionel Masudi headed home a right-wing cross from Darren Blake, who was sent to the sinbin early in the second half, but couldn’t get back on terms despite the home side being reduced to ten men late on.

“You can’t afford to go 2-0 down and then start playing,” said Smith, whose charges host Guildford City at Westfield Lane on Saturday after winning the first game between the two sides 3-0 in October.

“The players upped their game in the second half but it was too little too late.

“If they are honest with themselves they will all look back and say they didn’t give enough. I don’t care about the not playing well, it’s the not giving enough in the game. It was a lazy performance in the first half.”

And he added: “It’s easy to start playing when you are losing because you have to, so that’s the disappointing thing.

“But they’ve been really good recently and games like that happen every now and again. The important thing is Saturday and how we respond to it.

With a squad barely recognisable from the one which began the season in August, Lea have moved up to the relative comfort of 13th place in recent weeks – 14 points clear of the bottom two and only five points off eighth place – but Saturday’s defeat proved somewhat dispiriting as Smith’s stable and talented side look to push on up the league after overcoming the adversity of a six-match losing run and a high turnover of player personnel toward the end of last year.

A win at the Reg Madgwick Stadium would have seen Lea leapfrog Cobham, who now sit tenth in the Premier Division. Instead, the Baggies now trail their rivals by four points.

“It’s almost standing still all the time,” said Smith, “we’ve got to go on another little run to get anywhere. What I would like to see happen is just stop the rot right away. Saturday’s massive and we need to come away from the game unbeaten, you don’t want to lose two in a row.”

As for Saturday’s opponents Guildford, Smith said: “They’ve had a good run recently and I expect them to be better than the last time we played them. But we’re confident with the group we have got now and a lot of the lads will be looking at where we can end up and seeing how much higher we can get up the table.”

Smith faces an anxious wait over the fitness of star shotstopper Kallum Lunn, who suffered a rib injury in a collision with a Cobham player as he conceded the penalty from which Cobham took an early lead.

*Defender Durell Brown has joined Combined Counties League Division One strugglers Eversley & California while young midfielder Joe Pilling has left the club.