This recent encounter proved to be a good game of football from start to finish. It was a hard-fought contest that perhaps Bassett should have shaded but Ardley would probably disagree. And it was good to see Simon Green return to form and to welcome back Dominic Machell after a year of injury.

The game started brightly and the first five minutes saw Ardley come on strongly but never really trouble Bassett's defenders or keeper Hale. Bassett then settled down and started to move in to the attack with some good moves. Indeed, on 12 minutes a through ball found Lee Stoddart on his own with only keeper Wild (ex-Oxford and Newcastle) to beat. He hit it too soon and the keeper smothered his effort. At the other end, Cresswell hit the Bassett bar and Robert Mason headed the rebound timely into Hale's hands.

Then on 26 minutes, disaster struck Bassett. Steve Hale rolled the ball out to Jeremy Newton on the 18-yard line which hit his calf before trickling into the path of Stephan Ayris. He squared the ball in to the six-yard box where Robert Mason had a simple task to beat Hale. However, Bassett kept their shape and played football. Their reward came on 42 minutes. A ball was played wide left to Jeremy Newton and his pace took him past the defenders before a superb cross to the far post. Here it was met by Dominic Franklin whose volley on the run left Wild with no chance. All square at half-time.

Ardley did most of the attacking in the early part of the second half but, thanks to Paul Davis, Green, Machell, Lawrence Smith and Kevin Flavell, they carved out few chances. And behind them was Steve Hale whose two superb saves kept Bassett in the game. Things swung back towards Bassett as they then came out and took the game to Ardley. Lee Stoddart had a couple of chances, one of which was whipped away from him by the hand of an Ardley defender, although the referee did not see the offence. Even so, with this Bassett side's average age of 22, Dave Warren will be pleased with this performance against the champions.

Credit: John Reynolds
Last modified on Saturday 2nd January 2021 at 11:53