Bassett injury crises wasn′t letting up as two players pulled out leaving Manager Mike Hartley and his assistant Chris Jones with very few options on the Bench, Hartley having to put his boots on again.

After the defeat to Highworth it was going to be a test of character against a youthful looking Abingdon team, Hartley focusing on the defensive lapses that cost Bassett so dearly in their last outing.

Abingdon provided a few moments early where they should have really taken the lead but could capitalise on the opportunities

Bassett settled very quickly and with the very influential Jon Davis and Tony McClusker really started bossing the midfield and after a period of sustained pressure the opener came through an unfortunate own goal. Bassett had their tails up and doubled the lead with a well taken goal by Rory Mecham, dominating and constantly pressuring the ball in the Abingdon half resulted in a well deserved the third through Mark Hammond, Hammond who ′s effort since coming back from injury has been especially pleasing and it has only been bad luck that has not given him more of a return for his efforts.

Three nil up after twenty five minutes should have given Bassett the foundation to really push hard and finish the game off but to their credit Abingdon started fighting back and for what ever reason Bassett lost their way and spent the rest of the half battling to reassert themselves.

Abingdon started the same as they ended the first but this time Bassett were more comfortable and soaked up most of the pressure without too many scares, Paul Hawkins saving smartly from a monster of a drive from the tall Abingdon centre back.

Marcus Neal was replaced midway through the second half with Shaun Smith after taking a very hard knock to his ribs, Smith celebrating his 21st birthday.

With 15 minutes left the injury jinx struck again with Hammond pulling a hamstring which meant Hartley rolled back the years.

With just five minutes left Davis picked up the ball on the right and found McClusker in space who hammered the ball into the top corner with a beautiful strike. McClusker who had recently suffered bereavement in the family deserved to mark the game with such a wonderful goal as a fitting tribute and was a testament to his character to be able to concentrate on the game.

Speak after the game Chris Jones said, "Everyone at the club was sorry to hear about Tony′s loss and the lads new what it meant to him." Speaking about the injuries " we have a major problem with injuries at the moment and by the looks of things Mark is going to miss the Didcot game, Marcus appears to be ok but we′ll have to take a look at that over the next couple of days. With all these problems though it does allow us to take a look at some of the younger players like Rory, Luke Jones and Sam Rowe but it also means that some of the other players need to step up and be counted and Mike and myself have been delighted in particular with Shaun Smith, he′s be making some good progress in training and carrying that through into the games."

MOM – Jon Davis, another powerful performance from the dynamic midfielder, always in the action and a wonderful example to the younger players.

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Friday 4th December 2020 at 09:21