Rylands Way, 8th September 2004

Bassett Town were beaten by First Division West bottom dwellers Malmesbury Victoria 4-2 on penalties in a relatively dull Floodlit Cup contest. To add to this Lee Flynn picked up a bad looking injury to his foot, which could mean him missing time between the sticks.

Bassett made a bunch of changes for this game following Saturday's FA Cup defeat with Andy Youngsam, Ben Gascoyne and Lee Morse all dropping to the bench with debutant Mark King, Paul Patel, Rob Hopkins, Adam Greaney, Nathan Hall and Dave Tyler all starting. Rested were Steve Butning, Steve Yeardley, Matt Bennett and Mark Vaughan.

Tyler came close in the sixth minute when a 25-yard effort of his went just wide of the mark. Both sides failed to create much and the eccentric 'keeping of Malmesbury shot stopper Graham Jones kept the crowd entertained.

Jones tipped a glancing header from John Magani wide after Mark King chipped the ball across goal in the 16th minute before Paul Patel played King through a minute later but Jones saved.

Stuart Greatwood found the woodwork for the visitors as his curling twenty yard effort caused all sorts of trouble for 'keeper Lee Flynn but the ball came back out off the upright.

Tony Macek had a shot deflected wide on twenty five minutes but that was the closest Bassett came before the break in a disappointing first half in which Dave Tyler received a booking on the stroke of half time.

Eight minutes after the restart, Tyler headed over a Macek corner from twelve yards before in the 59th minute Macek had a shot tipped wide after the Malmesbury defence failed to clear a Paul Patel corner.

Bassett made a double change twenty minutes from time when Lee Morse and Andy Youngsam were brought onto replace Nathan Hall and Dave Tyler.

In the 82nd minute, 'keeper Jones was booked for Malmesbury after failing to follow the referees instructions and place the ball inside the six yard box before a goal kick.

Bassett were then dealt a blow in the first minute of injury time when Flynn went down trying to clear the ball; Rob Hopkins took over in goal and Gascoyne replaced Flynn.

In the first period of extra time King came closest six minutes in when he had a shot from six yards cleared off the line following a Macek corner.

King came close again in the second period, this time firing into the side netting two minutes from penalties.

Andy Mitchell scored first from the spot for Malmesbury – sending Hopkins the wrong way. Jones then saved Rich Willis' spot kick.

Steve Baker, Mark King, Harry Coates and Lee Morse then converted their kicks before Dan Lardner converted to put pressure on Tony Macek.

Macek's penalty was easily saved by Jones who had produced a stellar but somewhat eccentric performance, which delighted the crowd.

Scoop's Man of the Match: Andy Hallett – apart from getting nutmegged in the first minute, he produced a solid performance.

Scoop Rating: 5/10 – A poor performance in a game which looked easy on paper. Bassett seemed to go through the motions and let Malmesbury dominate for most of the game.

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Wootton Bassett Town were eventually awarded the game.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Friday 11th September 2020 at 09:40