Today′s match away at Swindon Soccer Skills was a must win encounter for both teams as before today we were both in good league positions looking over the shoulder of the leaders Lydiard and trying to keep the pressure on them.

From the kick off it was Wootton Bassett who showed their early intentions, looking sharp and creating some great passing and movement whilst snapping at the heels of the SSS players and not allowing them time to settle. But then with only a few minutes on the clock SSS pumped a speculative cross into the Bassett area which Mitchell managed to parry away well, only to see the ball bounce back off a Bassett player and into the back of the net. This was a big setback for us as it gave SSS a massive psychological advantage whilst it also upset our game plan of starting with a high tempo and controlling the game early on. After this touch of bad luck we managed to get back into the game and looked the most likely team to score next but then we got caught on the counter attack and unfortunately conceded a second, this was bad news but within minutes things got worse when Reuben got a knock on his ankle which meant he could only struggle through the rest of the game which was a major blow as we only had a depleted squad of seven players and no substitutes.

At the start of the second half we upped the tempo again and before long got ourselves back into the game when Josh latched onto a pass on the halfway line before running in and rounding the keeper to make the score 2-1 and at this stage I thought we could salvage something and maybe even go on to win as we were definitely playing the better football. But the longer the game went on the more tired Bassett became and we could only watch as SSS made vital substitutions to keep their players fresh whilst ours were rapidly running out of steam and this proved to be the difference between the two teams as SSS went on to score twice more in the last five minutes to make the final score SSS 4 - WBTFC 1.

Although today′s score line suggests a comfortable victory for SSS it was far from that and I thought we matched them in every department although SSS also played some excellent football and are a very good side. At the moment we don′t always seem to get the results we deserve but we need to remain upbeat as it is a real pleasure to stand and watch the standard of football we are playing at the moment and I am still convinced that if we stick to what we are doing at the moment, whilst also looking to attract another 2 or 3 quality players to our squad we will reap the benefits in the next few seasons as we move up to 11-a-side. Again it proved impossible to single out any one player for special praise today as every player gave everything they had and played quality football and had we had a full strength squad I′m sure the result would have been different. The passing the movement the recovery runs and the work rate were all fantastic and both Dave and I were more than happy with the overall performance, well done lads, keep doing what your doing and I′m convinced that the results will follow for years to come.

Credit: Nick Bolton
Last modified on Saturday 26th December 2020 at 14:42