Bassett started their 2000/2001 Season with a pre-season friendly against Eldene. On a very wet evening Bassett started the match playing some excellent football. With Matt Povey making his debut on the left-hand side of midfield linking well Stuart Smedley, and with Phil Tearle and Johnny Aitkenhead dominating the midfield, Bassett raced into a 4-goal lead. Matt Povey opened the scoring, with Phil Tearle and Mike Ford (2) completing the first half scoring. Bassett could have scored a lot more with the Eldene defence struggling to contain Mike Ford and Dean Wason. In defence Tom Holmes was given very little to do as the Bassett back four, marshalled excellently by David Lazenby, dealt comfortably with the Eldene forwards. At half time there was every confidence of more goals in the second half.

Three substitutions were made just after half time and Bassett extended their lead when one of those substitutes, Peter Willis, scored from close range. Bassett could have scored more goals, but the players started to get a bit greedy when other teammates were better placed. The loss of David Lazenby in Bassett's defence, due to injury, caused Bassett to lose their way and Eldene, led by Callum Dunn, started to fight back and put Bassett under pressure. In fact, Eldene banged in 4 goals in a 15 minute spell and could easily have equalised. In the end Bassett hung on to win the match but demonstrated in one match how inconsistent they can be. The 11 a side games will take some getting used to, particularly in terms of fitness as the team tired considerably as the match wore on.

Managers Man of the Match: David Lazenby

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Thursday 24th December 2020 at 12:26