Bassett missed the chance to go top of the league and the 2-3 defeat probably puts paid to any remote chance of winning the league. Without keeper Craig Munday, on holiday in Florida, Dan Srange injured and David Lazenby and Phil Forster away for the weekend, this was always going to be a tough game but Bassett put up a spirited performance against the favourites for the league title. Bassett went 1-0 down thanks to an excellent goal from Jeffries which was fired into the bottom corner of Bassett's net, giving stand-in keeper Sean Toomey no chance. The second came against the run of play when Sean Toomey failed to hold a shot from the edge of the box and keeper and ball were bundled into the net by Chris Akers following up the shot, 0-2 down. Greenmeadow then over ran Bassett for the remainder of the half and but for some fine interventions by Mike Ford Greenmeadow could easily have extended their lead. With half time approaching Bassett managed to get themselves back in the match. A one-two down the right between Phil Tearle and Shaun Mochan, who are developing a great understanding down the right flank, set Phil Tearle through, his lob over the keeper looked to be going in but Tom Marchment rifled it into the net to make sure. Bassett went into the break trailing by just one but not playing as well as they could.

A much improved second half saw Bassett take the game to Greenmeadow but due to some fine defending they were unable to get the elusive equaliser. Midway through the half, with Bassett breaking play was stopped due to head injury to a Greenmeadow player and a drop ball awarded. The ball was competed for, rather than passed back to Bassett, and ended up on the edge of the Bassett box and the ball was fired into the Bassett net by Akers. Despite having the better of the half Bassett now found themselves 1-3 down. Phillip Tearle ensured a nail-biting finish to the game when he shot past a static Greenmeadow keeper 8 minutes from time following a through ball from Pete Willis. The same player nearly ensured a share of the points when he rounded the keeper on the edge of the box but saw his shot skim the outside of the post with no covering defender in sight. So close but it was not to be. Bassett will be looking for revenge when they visit Greenmeadow in the County Cup Second Round in January.

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Thursday 19th November 2020 at 17:01