FROME Town bounced back from the disappointment of Saturday's home loss to King's Lynn with an excellent, gritty performance that saw them triumph 3-1 at Basingstoke Town thanks to goals from George Miller, Aidan Kirby and returning captain Sam Teale.

With Mitchell Page, Marcus Mapstone, Mike Bryant, Jake Jackson, Josh Ferguson and Jordan Walker all missing from the squad, Teale made his first start of the season playing at centre back, instead of his normal left back position, with the subs bench not containing a single player who has started a match this season.

Frome had the best of a lively start and in the second minute a 20-yard shot from stand-in centre forward Miller stung the hands of Alex Tokarczk before going out for a corner.

However, Miller was not to be denied and two minutes later he buried a great shot into net to give Frome a perfect start.

Frome continued to build on their success and in the 16th minute a perfect cross from Jon Davies found the head of returning striker Kirby only to be headed wide.

Two minutes later Basingstoke showed their intentions, bringing Frome keeper Darren Chitty into action with a good save.

After Clayton Green had shot just over from outside the box, another excellent Frome move led to Davies finding space for a Kirby shot, but as it flew just wide it would have been ruled out by the linesman’s flag anyway.

Frome continued to look the more dangerous of the two sides and after a foul on Kris Miller that earned a booking for Romone Rose, Green shot just over from the resulting free kick, but Basingstoke were starting to look dangerous and a shot flew into the side netting as they broke clean through for the first time.

As the match approached half time, Basingstoke started to move into the driving seat and Frome were starting to look a little apprehensive.

But the defence held firm and Frome very nearly went into the interval with a 2-0 lead as a great run and shot from Darren Jefferies beat Tokarczk but was cleared off the line by a defender.

Ten minutes into the second half, Frome did indeed make it 2-0 as a poor defensive back header was latched onto by Kirby and the striker coolly kept his nerve and went past Tokarczk before slotting the ball into the net.

Stung into action, Basingstoke went roaring back at Frome and Chitty started to earn his man of the match award with a string of excellent saves and the help of the base of the post.

But Frome weathered the storm and, after Jefferies had just shot wide, they made it 3-0 in the 63rd minute as skipper Sam Teale rose at the far post to head a Davies corner powerfully home.

Chitty carried on where he had left off to deny Basingstoke a couple more times, but was eventually beaten in the 76th minute as Sam Deadfield finished off a flowing move.

Goalkeeper Chitty was awarded the H&B Tyres Man of the Match award.