BASINGSTOKE Town looked to be cruising to an easy victory, until they conceded twice in the final 15 minutes, in their 3-2 victory over visiting Chesham United.

Town manager Terry Brown made five changes to the side which won at St Ives the previous week.

They were Alex Tokarczyk, Terence van Cooten, Michael Atkinson, Charlie Kennedy and Aaron Redford.

It seemed to work wonders as the home side piled on the pressure from the opening kick-off.

Striker Aaron Redford, who looked back to his best up front, soon forced a block, while van Cooten fired over.

Chesham’s first attack came after 12 minutes and Phil Roberts forced Tokarczyk into a save down low.

The impressive George Bennett was then put in behind the visitor’s defence by Rob Atkinson, but the right back scuffed his shot.

Soon after, a lovely lay back from Redford, saw Michael Atkinson fire over the bar and the same player headed wide from van Cooten’s cross minutes later.

The home side’s pressure really deserved at least one goal and their first goal finally arrived after 35 minutes.

A flick on by Redford found Ashleigh Artwell and he produced a lovely finish under visiting goalkeeper Richard Hayward.

The early part of the second half belonged to the Dragons as they roared into a 3-0 lead.

Redford was the first to find the net after 49 minutes, following nice play from Artwell.

Then three minutes later, a great ball forward from captain David Ray found man of the match Artwell and a lovely strike from 25-yards out flew into the net.

Soon after, this a great block denied Redford a fourth, before Town boss Brown made his first change of the afternoon replacing Nana Owusu, who received no protection from referee Matthew Rushton being fouled numerous times.

On came Sam Deadfield and the home side completely bossed the game, a great run by Rob Atkinson saw him go past three Chesham players, as if they were statues and then shoot just wide.

Everything was going to plan, but on the 76 minute mark, a shot from Sam Youngs looked to be an easy take for the home goalie, but instead it hit the back of the net.

Then six minutes later, a glancing header from Curtis Ujah made it 3-2, after Chesham made the most of a quickly taken free-kick.

The visitors then had a stroke of luck as defender Toby Little was lucky to just escape with a yellow card, being the last man for a foul on Aaron Jarvis.

Chesham then so very nearly stole a point as a shot from Youngs hit the crossbar.

After the game, Town manager Brown said: “For 70 minutes this was one of our best displays of the season. I felt we deserved to be more than just 1-0 up at half-time, but in the second half we got the goals. They have had three proper shots scored twice and hit the bar.

The positives are that Ashley (Artwell) and George (Bennett) had wonderful games and I was really pleased with the way we passed the ball, but I still can’t believe we only won it 3-2.”

The victory moved Town up to 12th in the Southern League Premier Division table and next up for the team on Saturday is an away trip to Redditch.