Wootton Bassett visited last season's champions, Westbrook, for a game brought forward by two weeks due to neither side being involved in cup action. What followed was an entertaining game, with both sides playing some excellent passing football. It was the home side who took the lead after 20 minutes when Rob Dean found himself in space on the right hand side of Bassett's box and calmly side footed the ball into the far corner past Tom Holmes in the Bassett goal. Chances for both sides were limited in the first period with Phil Tearle and Jonny Aitkenhead being the main threat for Bassett but finding it hard to get round a Westbrook defence marshalled superbly by Gary Devenney. Westbrook had a goal disallowed for hand ball in the closing moments of the half and the sides turned round at the interval with just the one goal separating the two sides.

The quality of football continued to be of a high standard in the second period, but it was the home side who always looked the more likely to score, with Andrew Grier and Rob Dean looking dangerous in front of goal. Indeed, it was the home side who extended their lead when Andrew Grier shot high into the corner of Bassett's net after Bassett failed to clear the ball properly. Jonny Aitkenhead put Bassett back into contention when he linked up well with Phil Tearle and Josh Dimond on the right-hand side to finally breach the Westbrook defence, to score his third league goal of the season. Bassett pushed forward in search of an equaliser but again found it hard to create any clear-cut chances. In the closing stages another powerful shot into the top corner of the goal by Andrew Grier secured the three points for Westbrook. A close game where the difference between the two sides was the cutting edge in attack, with Westbrook always looking the side who were more likely to score. Matt Povey and Dan Strange had excellent games for Bassett and were unlucky to find themselves on the losing side after working so hard all match.

Managers Man of the Match: Matt Povey

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Friday 20th November 2020 at 18:52