Banks frustrated by defeat (From The Wiltshire Gazette and Herald)

Banks frustrated by defeat

12:33pm Thursday 22nd February 2007 in Football By Nick Mashiter

THREE goals in two minutes capped a thrilling night at Bremhill View, but midfielder Kevin Banks was left ruing his side's second half performance.

Midway through the second period, and with Calne leading 1-0, Bitton scored twice, with Gary Banks replying, to leave the sides level at 2-2.

However, the visitors stole the points in the last two minutes to leave Robbie Lardner's side without a league win in eight games.

Banks, 23, said: "Instead of pushing on and playing like we can do, we sat back and relaxed and were punished.

"We are used to success and our confidence has been knocked a little bit but teams raise their game against us because we are a scalp."

The Lilywhites travel to in form Devizes on Saturday hoping the derby atmosphere will help them cause an upset.

"They have beaten us twice this season, but it is a one off game and we are still confident if we play to our best we can do well," said Banks "There are still 20 games left this season and a lot to play for so, starting Saturday, we can start climbing the table."

On Tuesday, Calne struggled to cope with the movement of the Bitton strikers but slowly hauled themselves back into the game as midfielders Banks and Danny Jones pushed forward.

It was the hosts who took the lead on 20 minutes when in demand front man Glenn Armstrong was brought down in the box and scored the resulting penalty.

The visitors piled on the pressure but had to wait until the hour to level when Steve Jones headed in a corner.

Sixty seconds later they were ahead as the Lilywhites lost possession straight from the kick off and striker Tom Knighton nipped into score.

However, in keeping with the nature of the game, Gary Banks equalised almost immediately when he tapped in Jake Jefferies' knock down.

The points were looking to be shared, but in the 88th minute Jones rose to head home another corner and take all three for the visitors.

The defeat ended a disappointing three days for Calne, who threw two points away in a 0-0 draw at home to Dawlish on Saturday. James Lye, Ben Moore and Kevin Banks all had chances to win the game but could not find a way past visiting keeper Mark Rock.

Banks added: "We still know we have the players in the dressing room and we have just got to keep our heads down and I am sure the results will come.

"It is not as if we are getting battered every week, we are losing by the odd goal and we deserved three points on Saturday."