The Under 11s started off their league campaign this season with a trip to Marlborough on Sunday.

With Marlborough seeming to be our bogey side over the last few fixtures every one was expecting a tough, close, hard fought encounter, and this proved exactly so.

With both Grant White and Ryan Amos missing, chances were given to some of the less experienced boys, new boy Daniel, a summer capture from Robins was also given a start.

The game started well for Bassett with a few chances created early on, the best of them falling to Tom and Josh, also Daniel having a strike from outside the box just going over.

Playing on a smaller pitch than that, which the boys had been training on, it became apparent the space and time was going to become a premium, however, the boys kept plugging away trying to play football and the defence of Cole , Harry, Nick and AK only rarely looked threatened, with these threats not coming from open play but direct from the Marlborough goalkeepers long punts up the field.

As the first half progressed Bassett continued to make and squander chances, with the Marlborough goalkeeper make a number of outstanding saves.

The front pairing of Tom and Ellis worked tirelessly throughout the first half closing down the defence and chasing onto through balls

The half ended with Bassett well on top and cannot understanding why they had not scored.

The second half saw much of the same attacking pressure from Bassett, a number of changes were made with Neil coming on at left wing, Bradley up front and Kerion into midfield, these changes almost paid immediate dividends as Neil crossed into the box for Bradley whose first time shot was again brilliantly saved by the Marlborough goalkeeper, who was quickly turning in a man of the match performance. Again Bassett had the majority of possession with Fraser in our goal having very little to do, Jack was also becoming more and more influential in midfield, with only desperate defending preventing a deserved Bassett goal.

With time running down and with a nil – nil score line looking the likely outcome, positional changes were made with Tom, who had run his heart all day out being replaced with Nick up front and Ellis dropping back into central defence.

With about 6 or 7 minutes to go the breakthrough finally came when a cross from the right caused a scramble in the Marlborough box with the ball finally coming out to Neil Little, who stroked the ball into the corner of the net giving the keeper no chance.

A lead that was thoroughly deserved.

This goal bought much relief and joy from not only the boys, but also the parents and management.

Bassett continued to press on and were rewarded with a second goal a few minutes later when Nick Buckle picked up the ball midway into the Marlborough half, ran passed two players and shot into the far corner from the edge of the box.

The final whistle soon followed ending a game in which the boys were made to work hard, but were finally rewarded for their efforts.

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Sunday 27th December 2020 at 15:48