Hampton & Richmond chief Alan Devonshire believes his life would be a lot easier if he had a reserve team squad at the Beveree.

Devonshire was forced to field Rob Paris in Saturday's 2-2 Blue Square South draw with Basingstoke Town at the Beveree less than 48 hours after the centre-back returned from international duty with Anguilla.

Paris (right), who played in his country's 12-0 defeat to El Savador in Miami, arrived back in the country on Thursday evening, but a back injury to stand-in Alan Inns forced him into action.

Injured quartet Glen Harris, Francis Quarm, Graham Harper and Aaron Barnett, plus suspended duo Kelvin MacIntosh and Shaun McAuley, were also missing.

Devonshire is convinced his squad would benefit from a second string, but refused to blame a lack of resources for failing to secure victory at the weekend.

"Of course I would like to have a reserve side because it would be easier to develop the younger players," he said.

"But we just can't afford it. All I can do is get the players on dual registration with other clubs, but it is hard to keep track of their progress.

"I would like to see it change, but I'm not going to use it as an excuse as it was the decision we have taken.

"We should have been out of sight at half-time and I wasn't very happy with the second-half performance. I see it as two points dropped, really."

Ian Hodges opened the scoring on Saturday but it took a late strike from Lawrence Yaku to secure a draw.

Basingstoke took a 2-1 lead just past the hour, when Ryan Lake was sent off for deliberate handball on the goal line.

But two red cards for the visitors handed the initiative back to the Beavers.

"The decisions didn't affect the result but the referee got the three main decisions he had to make spot on," added Devonshire.

"I wasn't too happy with some of the other decisions, but the three big ones he got right when I've seen some other referees bottle it in similar situations."

The Beavers go to Maidenhead United on Saturday.