Royal Wootton Bassett Town's league woes continued as they suffered a heavy 4-0 defeat at the hands of local rivals Fairford Town.

While couples celebrated the Feast of Saint Valentine, Royal Wootton Bassett Town were left alone, sodden and humiliated as they fell to a dismal 4-0 loss away against near neighbours Fairford Town on a miserable February evening.

Eight games in a row have now been lost in the league, with it being two whole months since Bassett last claimed a point.

Where once they had hopes of cementing a place in the top half come season's end, they are now staring at another mediocre lower mid-table finish.

To add further insult to injury, this was only the fifth league win in 2017-18 for Fairford - a team embroiled in a battle to stay out of the bottom four - and was their most comprehensive so far this season.

The Reds led after quarter of an hour as Hungerford Town-loanee Conor Lynch fired them in front.

Lee Smith then doubled the advantage shortly after the hour before Lynch put the result beyond doubt with twenty minutes to go.

Though clearly on the path to defeat, there was still at least some time to try and reclaim some pride.

Instead, however, Bassett crumbled, conceding another goal to Smith late on.

The extent and speed with which the team have regressed over the past weeks has been alarming. And you'd at least expect, with interim manager Sam Collier in place, that the players would have responded to that decision and shown some fight. Not on this occasion.

With eight games to go, they owe it to Collier - who has admirably stepped into the breach - to at least finish the season on some form of high.

Pride is, after all, something that is worth playing for.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Wednesday 14th February 2018 at 22:01