Highworth Town were our opponents for our first match of the 2005/6 campaign and we were looking to get off to a good start and to carry on from where we left off last season.

Although we started the first half kicking uphill we soon got into our stride and straight away exerted some good early pressure which resulted in the HJ goalkeeper handling outside his area. From the resulting free kick Bassett fired a warning to HJ with a good shot which the opposition managed to scramble away. Minutes later HJ took a throw just inside their own half but with good pressure again from Bassett the ball fell to Max Passingham who struck a great shot from the edge of the area which gave the HJ keeper no chance, 1-0 to Bassett. Straight from the restart HJ pushed on looking for the equaliser but solid defending from Mitchell Terry and Martin Bates and great goalkeeping from Jack Twine ensured we kept our one goal advantage as we went into the break.

For the early part of the second half all the pressure was coming from Bassett and before long we had made it 2-0 after some good work from Max on the right created a chance for Scott Lees to bury into the top corner. Now we looked hungry and Josh Bolton, Max Passingham and Reuben Querzani-Southan all went close but it was HJ who came on strong and nicked a goal back to make it an exciting last few minutes, final score WBTFC 2 – HJ 1.

This was exactly the way we had hoped we would start the season, every player gave 100% and we looked very solid in all parts of the field with Tom Topping and Alex Dinsmore making good debuts. The man of the match award could have gone to any one of the nine players today as this was a great team effort but I think the player who deserved it the most today was Jack Twine who was excellent in goal.

MOTM – Jack Twine

Credit: Unknown
Last modified on Saturday 26th December 2020 at 14:20