Three goals in seven second-half minutes saw Hastings Town storm to a 3-1 win at home to Witney Town.

Hastings looked to be heading for another miserable afternoon at The Pilot Field until a few choice words from manager George Wakeling at half time turned things around.

Australian David James scored twice and Steve Yates grabbed the other goal to keep Hastings on the fringes of the Eastern Division promotion race.

Wakeling said: "I'm very pleased because we need to start winning at home."

Commenting on his team's late surge for promotion, he added: "We're just going to keep doing our thing. Let's hope the others fall by the wayside. I don't think they will but I hope so."

Witney had already gone close on a couple of occasions before Richard Bourne fired them in front with a flicked finish on 14 minutes.

After an insipid first half performance Wakeling tore into players and instructed them to play further up the pitch.

The move worked wonders because on 57 minutes James lashed home a close range volley after Tommy Osborne's header had come back off the crossbar.

Soon after Hastings added a second when Yates scored during a goalmouth scramble and James struck again with a diving header from Danny Simmonds' cross.

Andy Thomson accused his St Leonards side of being an embarrassment after they slumped to a 4-1 defeat at Banbury United.

He admitted: "We were dreadful.

"They the players were an absolute embarrassment.

"It was ironic that they tried to start a fight in the 88th minute and they probably would have lost that as well.

"Losing is part of the game but I know when I've been cheated and I feel like I've been cheated today."

Banbury took the lead in the 19th minute when Terry Muckleberg slammed the ball through a crowd of players.

George Redknapp made it 2-0 shortly after half time with the St Leonards defence appealing in vain for offside.

Danny Fletcher gave the visitors hope with a crisp volley to make it 2-1 but any chance of a comeback disappeared a minute later when Gary Harrison out-muscled Danny Moody and headed the ball over goalkeeper Jason Curtis.

Langney Sports failed to bounce back after their midweek trouncing at Grantham, slumping to their second defeat in four days, a 1-0 reverse at Dartford.

A solitary goal separated the two teams at the end of 90 minutes of frustration for Garry Wilson's team.

"We were not creative enough," said Wilson. "We dominated the game without really pressurising them.

"We had all the possession and never looked in danger apart from conceding a silly set piece goal.

"I thought Dartford were very negative, but they made life difficult for us."

Langney certainly missed the pace of striker Matt Allen, who was away at his brother's wedding.

Strikers John Snelgrove and Clinton More could make little headway against a Dartford team who defended in numbers.

In a first half of few chances, the deadlock was finally broken in the 36th minute.

Keeper Will Packham was unable to cut out a corner from the right by Mark Greatorex and Luke Morrish's header found its way into the net through a packed goalmouth.

A 25-yarder from Matt Crabb, which brought the best out of home keeper Steve Williams, was Langney's best first-half effort.

Williams also had to pull out all the stops to deny Simon Colbran, whose header also threatened a Langney equaliser.

But as the game wore on, it became more and more obvious that this was to be another pointless day for a Langney team who had beaten league leaders Chelmsford just a week earlier.