ASHVILLE suffered a 4-1 defeat at home to promotion rivals Sandbach United on Saturday, their heaviest defeat of the season to date.

In a game where Ashville didn’t really get going it took the visitors only eight minutes to take the lead when former Villa striker Ben Greenop scored with a one yard tap in on his return to Ray Parker Stadium after joining Sandbach over the summer.

The remainder of the first half was a competitive midfield battle with not much action to speak of.

A couple of near misses apparently wasn’t warning enough for Ashville whose collapse began in the 66th minute when Joe Bevan danced through the defence before calmly slotting into the bottom corner.

Bevan grabbed his second ten minutes later, cutting inside from the left and drilling his shot into the bottom left hand corner.

Bevan completed his hat-trick a minute later when a cross from the right found the softly marked forward in the six yard box who duly poked it in to make it 4-0.

Ashville would grab a consolation with virtually the last kick of the game when keeper Andrew Jones dropped a corner to the feet of Connor Courtnell who smashed into the roof of the net for his first of the season.

Despite the poor home form Ashville still only sit outside the playoffs on goal difference. They will be looking to make amends when they welcome New Mills to Ray Parker Stadium on November 30 in a 3pm kick off.