Bassett were up against Stratton today in another League match played at Ballards Ash, with the aim being to keep up our recent good form and increase our unbeaten run.

The first half started with some good early pressure from Bassett which nearly resulted in an early goal when Max did well to beat several players on the right before crossing the ball to Josh who shot just over the bar. Then it was Oliver's turn to go close when he shot wide after being set up by Scott who had just played a good one-two with Mitchell. The weather then started to deteriorate and the rest of the half was spent trying to encourage the players to keep moving and keep warm as their minds were clearly not on the game and we did consider abandoning it but in the end we decided to keep playing.

As the second half got underway it was clear that both sides weren't really at their best and this game could have easily gone either way but it was Stratton who opened the scoring with a good piece of individual skill from their striker and the same player nearly scored again minutes later but Reuben came off his line excellently to smother his shot. Although we tried to keep playing passing football a lot of our moves were breaking down, probably due to the players being so cold and wet so we asked them to be a bit more direct and within minutes this paid off when Scott crossed in a long corner which Josh connected with at the far post. With the score now at 1-1 Bassett started to pile on the pressure and before long we took the lead. Martin played a good ball out of defence which Josh collected just inside the Stratton half, with Oliver and Scott both taking up good positions Josh whipped the ball into the area and unfortunately for Stratton it went into the goal off one of their players to make the final score 2-1 to Bassett.

The conditions were terrible today but credit must be given to both teams who kept going right up until the end and especially the home team who ground out another good win, Martin and Mitchell were probably the pick of the bunch today with Martin just edging the Man of the Match.

MOTM – Martin Bates

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Monday 21st December 2020 at 18:07