Nomads batter Bassett on a night to forget

Royal Wootton Bassett Town returned to league action with a comprehensive 5-0 defeat against Oxford City Nomads.

Royal Wootton Bassett Town were on the receiving end of a thrashing for the second league game in a row as they were emphatically beaten 5-0 by an outstanding Oxford City Nomads side.

Nomads have typically been an unpredictable team, who are difficult to prepare for. And so it proved again.

Despite entering the game 15th in the Hellenic League Premier Division table, they had racked up big victories in their previous two games, including a 5-1 thumping of Longlevens in their last league fixture.

They were in devastating form again against Bassett, taking the lead on eight minutes when Liam Talboys drove home from range following sloppy defending after a short corner from the hosts.

An excellent save from Dan Lawrence then prevented Sami Khawaja from doubling Nomads' lead before Rory Sproule struck just wide at the other end when he was picked out at the far post.

It was the visitors who were making most of the play though, and after Henry Landers twice went close, Khawaja made it 2-0 on the stroke of half time, catching Lawrence out and curling in a free kick from out wide.

They struck early in the second half too to put the result beyond doubt. Nomads executed a perfect counter attack and some fine passing on the edge of the area opened up space for Landers who made no mistake.

Bassett's night soon went from bad to worse as Sproule received his marching orders, picking up a second yellow card for dissent.

That made his team's life even tougher, and they duly conceded twice more with time winding down.

Lawrence was unable to keep Siyanda Gila's shot out after he had been played in by Jordi Ngathe on 80 minutes, before substitute Ben Barrett rubbed further salt into the wounds, scoring with a cross-cum-shot with three minutes remaining.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Wednesday 25th October 2017 at 21:53