Wealdstone suffered just their second Conference South defeat in 17 games as they went down 4-1 at home to Bishop’s Stortford.

Defeat sees Wealdstone drop one place to 12th but the Stones are still 14 points clear of the relegation zone with eight games remaining.

Stones were behind inside six minutes when George Allen rose highest to power a poorly-defended header into the top corner. And Gordon Bartlett’s men never really recovered from that early blow.

The home side might have levelled on 17 minutes when West Ham United loanee Nathan Mavila skinned his marker and crossed for Luke O'Nien, whose shot looked destined for the far corner until goalkeeper Jake Larkins somehow clawed behind.

The Bishops doubled their lead after 24 minutes; Jefferson Louis disastrously miscuing a clearance from a corner, allowing Suarez to easily fire past the returning Jonathan North from six yards.

But within a minute Louis was the home fans' hero again, first winning a penalty and then sending Larkins the wrong way from the spot.

That goal saw Stones rally and enjoy their best spell of the match.

Jonny Wright came within inches of an equaliser just after the half-hour mark but Stones were lucky not to concede again when Suarez outpaced the defence only to cross the ball behind teammate Greg Pearson.

The home crowd endured more disappointment in the second period when the buoyant away side’s two-goal cushion was restored only five minutes after the break.

Michael Corcoran clumsily bundled over Ashley Miller and Suarez stroked home the resulting penalty.

Stones boss Bartlett responded with a double substitution and the changes almost brought immediate reward with Mavila hitting the outside of the post from a good Louis cross.

And Louis was then denied by a brilliant block from Allen as the home side pushed for a route back into the tie.

But The Bishops sealed the points on 82 minutes. With Stones pushing up in numbers, substitute Matt Ball lost out in a stretched midfield and sub Bobby Joe Taylor broke clear to fire beyond a hopelessly exposed North.

And afterwards, an angry Gordon Bartlett said: “There were two teams out there today but only one of them played with heart - and it wasn’t us.

“We are not used to that type of performance at Wealdstone and I can only put it down to complacency. They wanted it more than we did and we paid the price.

“Credit to the visitors they did a job on us but we were very poor today and this was an unacceptable performance, they were all soft goals to concede and it’s entirely down to us.”

Wealdstone: North; Hammond (Lucien), Parker, Hamblin, Watts; Davies, Corcoran (McGleish), O'Nien, Mavila; Wright (Ball), Louis.

Not used: Cronin, Martin.

Attendance: 744