LICHFIELD City suffered a 1-0 defeat on the road at Basford United.
A strike from Dwayne Wiley after a quarter of an hour proved to be the difference between the two sides.
Basford made the brighter start to the encounter, forcing Brendon Bunn to tip a corner onto the bar in the opening exchanges.
At the other end, Harry Wakefield attempted an audacious lob from the halfway line, but saw the ball miss the target.
The breakthrough came when Bunn saved a close range header from a corner but could do nothing to prevent Wiley nodding home on the rebound.
The Lichfield keeper was being kept busy – and he made another smart save to push the ball over to prevent the hosts doubling their advantage.
Luke Childs fired wide just before the break as City went in a goal down at half-time.
The second half saw Ivor Green’s men create the first chance when a Jack Edwards free kick was flicked goalwards by Tom Brown, but Basford keeper Matthew Yates was on hand to save.
Dan Lomas was next to try and force an equaliser for Lichfield as his header was kept out following a scramble in the box.
At the other end, Bunn was alert to save from a header.
Wakefield went agonisingly close to levelling in the late stages of the fixture, but his curling effort went just wide of the upright.