SCREWFIX DIRECT LEAGUE: DEVIZES Town went down to a disappointing defeat at the hands of a strong Yeovil Town line-up at Huish Park on Saturday night.

Yeovil used the match against Newlands' side to field the likes of ex-Charlton Athletic striker Kim Grant and highly-rated Chris Giles, both of whom had been named on the substitutes' bench for the Somerset side's Nationwide Conference draw with Doncaster in the afternoon.

But, despite the strength of the opposition, the visitors looked set to register their second victory of the season over Yeovil's second string when top scorer Barry Flippance gave them a deserved lead four minutes before the break.

Devizes had squandered a number of goalscoring opportunities in the opening half and paid the price when Yeovil equalised three minutes later.

The home side then clinched victory after the break when Giles snapped up his one chance of the match on the hour to score the winner.

Julian Alexander made his return in a Devizes shirt as a second half substitute, but he and midfielder Nick Mooney also missed late chances to give the visitors a deserved share of the spoils.

Devizes manager Newlands was left to rue the catalogue of missed chances as his side failed in their bid to move back into the Premier Division's top six.

Said Newlands: "We had more than enough chances to win the game and just squandered them. We played well and thoroughly deserved to win the game.

"It was disappointing. All I asked for was 100 per cent from my players and I got that. We worked hard and created as many chances as we have in any game this season.

"Every time we went forward we created a chance with some good football. The gulf between the two side's strikers was highlighted when Chris Giles had one half-chance and scored from it in the second half."

Newlands added: "We could see from the team sheet they had quite a good side out. Four of the subs from the main game played and, if they hadn't have done, we'd have won the game.

"This was one of the games we had to get something out of and I was disappointed to lose."

But Newlands was glad to see Alexander back in Devizes' colours.

He said: "His achilles is still a bit tender so we don't want to push him. But he showed signs when he came on of what he will do when he's fully fit."