A MATT Partridge strike just after the hour mark earned Basingstoke Town a 1-0 victory at St Ives in the Southern League Premier Divison.

It was Town’s second victory at the Westwood Road Stadium this season, having beaten St Ives ground sharers Cambridge City earlier in the campaign.

The Dragons made three changes to the side, which lost at King’s Lynn the previous weekend.

Kieran Greene got his first start in goal in place of Alex Tokarczyk, while Marcus Johnson-Schuster and Rob Atkinson came in for Terrence van Cooten and Michael Akinson.

An early chance from St Ives’ Jack Bradshaw was blocked by skipper David Ray and then Partridge fired wide from distance.

Town striker Aaron Jarvis then managed to fight his way through the defence and his low shot was saved by home goalkeeper Tim Trebes.

Soon after, the home side’s Matt Wright fired over the bar after a goal mouth scramble.

As the first half ended, Town were the better side, but had nothing to show for it, as they headed to the dressing room.

Just under 10 minutes into the second half, and a lovely run from Owusu saw him go just wide.

On 63 minutes, the visitors were forced to make a change as Aaron Redford replaced an injured Ashleigh Artwell.

Then two minutes later, the Dragons took the lead as Deadfield’s corner was headed onto the bar by Ray and Partridge was the first to react to the rebound planting the ball into the net.

The visitors went close to adding a second soon after, as sub Redford’s shot from 20 yards out went over.

As St Ives pushed forward, Owusu made use of the space created and had a couple of chances, before injury forced him to be replaced by Charlie Kennedy.

The home side kept looking for an equaliser, but Greene was not to be denied a clean sheet on his first league start as Town won the game 1-0.

The victory keeps Dragons in 13th place in the Southern League Premier Division table and next for them is a home game on Saturday, when Chesham United are the visitors.