A penalty miss from the usually deadly Victor Osubu cost Beaconsfield SYCOB dear as they lost out to St Ives Town at Holloways Park on Saturday.

The striker had scored four times in his previous four games but, after Chris Henry had been fouled in the box on the stroke of half-time, he saw his spot-kick saved with the match still goalless.

Aaron Berry was first to the rebound but he missed the target from ten yards with the goal gaping, and the hosts were made to pay for their profligacy when the visitors beat Brendon Hazlett just before the hour mark to score the only goal of the contest.

Becky boss Gary Meakin said: “A draw probably would have been fair. We didn’t do enough to win the game but we certainly didn’t do anything to lose the game.

“We missed a penalty on half-time and had we scored that then we probably would have gone on to win the game.

“They’ve scored a goal which was quite fortunate because it wasn’t a shot – I can’t remember them having a shot in the second half – it was a cross that was over-hit and went into the net. Once they went into the lead they defended well and saw out the game quite well. I can’t really complain.”

Meakin’s second stint in charge of the Rams, which began when he took the reins from Andy Hurley in January, has so far yielded two wins, three draws and three defeats from the eight matches he has overseen.

The trio of losses have all been by one goal, as was the case against St Ives, and while Beaconsfield are still third from bottom in Southern One Central the SYCOB manager feels his team are now a different proposition to earlier in the season.

“It’s frustrating but a good sign in a way. The first job when you come in is to compete. Although they were competing before it was a draw here or there, and then it was a 3-0 defeat, a 3-1 defeat, and then it was a draw,” he said.

“Now we’ve gone from winning games and drawing games to if we lose we’re only losing by the odd-goal.

“We’re not getting battered by anybody we’ve just got to turn the odd defeat into draws or wins. That’s the next step. We’ve got to win three or four more games and we’ll be ok.”

The Rams are nine points above the relegation zone with ten games left to play this season. The first of those sees Meakin and his charges welcome play-off chasing Barton Rovers to Holloways Park on Saturday, an encounter which the Becky boss is relishing given that their seventh place opponents will be expecting to win after a 3-0 victory in the reverse fixture back in November.

He said: “It would be a surprise in terms of league position, but we’ve got near enough six or seven players that finished one point behind Barton last season. In terms of the teams playing each other it wouldn’t be a surprise, no. But in terms of league places I suppose you’d have to call it a surprise if we won.

“Sometimes, in a way, these games are easier. Not in terms of the ability of the opposition you’re playing, but sometimes the players suffer a lull in their concentration levels when they play teams that they feel aren’t as good as themselves.

“Playing Barton will be a good test, the players know that they’re in the play-offs so they will get themselves up for the game and sometimes that helps.”