Bassett Town Under 13's got off to a brilliant start on their Holland Tour with a 4-0 thrashing of E.B.O.H. Dordrecht as Phil Tearle grabbed four of his seven goals in Holland this year. Bassett at times played some super football, and that is how goal three came, but they started shakily as the skilful Dutch side pressured Craig Munday in the Bassett goal. Bassett had left some of the stronger players on the bench for the first half in Mike Ford, Tom Marchment, Dan Strange, Stuart Smedley and Sean Toomey but Phil Tearle, Jonny Aitkenhead, Josh Dimond, Dave Lazenby and Dean Wason all started As I have said above, Bassett allowed E.B.O.H. most of the ball in the opening minutes of a shorter than usual match for the Under 13's. Craig Munday was pressured early on and made some fine saves to begin with as the Bassett back four of Jonny Aitkenhead, Dave Lazenby, Will McCurrach and Phil Forster couldn't cope with the pressure from E.B.O.H.'s front three. Bassett did however break the deadlock against the run of play when Pete Willis put strike partner Phil Tearle through, Tearle danced around four E.B.O.H. defenders and slotted the ball past the stunned E.B.O.H. 'keeper. Following the goal, Bassett continued to put the pressure on and it was inevitable that the second would come and it did, again from Phil Tearle who slotted home comfortably to give Bassett a 2-0 lead going into the half time break.

At the break Bassett made all five substitutions bringing Mike Ford on for Jonny Aitkenhead (who would later come back on for Curt Postill), Sean Toomey on for Craig Munday, Stuart Smedley on for Luke Cressey, Tom Marchment for Dean Wason and Dan Strange for Dave Lazenby. Bassett, in the second half, continued to dominate the play with E.B.O.H. having their share of it in places and the third goal came for Bassett ten minutes into the half when Josh Dimond played Phil Tearle through down the right wing, Tearle then played a neat one-two with captain Jonny Aitkenhead and Phil Tearle rounded off a superb piece of play with a fine goal. E.B.O.H. began to get on the offensive and if it wasn't for Sean Toomey between the sticks in the second half for Bassett they could have got one or two fine goals due to some good inter play down their right wing. Bassett had a goal disallowed through Pete Willis midway through the second half when Jonny Aitkenhead whipped in a free kick from the left which was pulled back across the goal by Phil Tearle and Pete Willis tapped it in only for it to be cancelled out for offside, a bizarre decision to say the least. Bassett, did however, make it four when Phil Tearle again was there to grab his fourth and final goal of the game in a superb performance by him. Manager Mark Smedley said of Bassett's performance, 'The team played really well against a very skilful side and we took the lead against the run of play thanks to Phil Tearle. Phil then got a second and from then on there was only going to be one winner and in the end, we won 4-0 thanks to four Phil Tearle goals.'

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Thursday 19th November 2020 at 18:36