The Recreation Ground, 18th November 2006

Losing 4-0 to local rival Pewsey Vale was bad enough for Bassett boss Paul Burke but Dwayne Quinn's red card after he had only been on the pitch for 14 minutes added insult to injury after a woeful performance left Bassett with even more catching up to do in the league.

Bassett fell back down to earth with a thud after last week's brilliant win at Calne Town on a day where it seemed like there were more yellow cards dished out than clear cut chances for either side.

Pewsey almost drew first blood two minutes in when an unmarked Craig Wall headed just wide from Ryan Banks' cross.

Ten minutes later Andy White forced a good save from Richard Payne after a neat reverse pass from Nathan Hall before White forced Payne to tip wide after shooting on the turn from a Steve Yeardley cross.

Pewsey took the lead and never looked back in the 22nd minute after a defensive error from Paul Davis gifted Wall an easy goal as he slotted home after finding himself one-on-one following a poor Davis pass.

There was little else in front of goal in the first period and the only action for the remainder of the half involved the over officious referee who dished out cards to Steve Yeardley for a tough tackle and to Mark King for dissent.

Wall found himself in the book two minutes after the restart for jumping in front of a Bassett free kick whilst two yards away from the ball before King came to equalising but his 15 yard effort was cleared off the line by Shaun Carter.

Scott Large replaced King just before the hour before ex-Bassett midfielder Harry Hambridge had a shot deflected wide after a low cross across from the box from Tom Ritchie.

The resulting corner saw Lee Beavis clearing a Ritchie header off the line as Bassett clutched at straws.

Hall should have squared it up in the 64th minute when he was put through by White. Hall slotted his shot underneath Payne but the ball held up in the mud and Paul Fisher raced back to hook it off the line.

Quinn made his entrance, replacing Davis, in the 66th minute and in under less than two minutes was cautioned for dissent after protesting a decision to award Pewsey a corner.

From the corner, Pewsey doubled their lead. Hambridge's set piece was poor but miscommunication saw the Bassett defence leave it and the ball rolled in at the front post.

With eighteen minutes to go, Michael Martin made it three after racing onto a ball over the top and coolly placing the ball past a helpless Adam Miller after Chris Mills had been dispossessed.

Marcus Neal was thrown on for Jon Davis to try and provide a spark upfront but Pewsey continued to pile on the pressure.

Banks flashed a short from a tight angle across the face of goal in the 76th minute before Martin made it four two minutes later.

The forward raced onto substitute Dan Hogan's through ball before rounding Miller. However his effort came back off the post and should have been cleared. However Bassett failed to do this giving Martin a second bite at the cherry and he made no mistake, firing into the bottom left corner from eighteen yards.

Quinn received his marching orders with eleven minutes left after dragging Martin to the ground before Beavis was booked, again for dissent.

Hambridge could have made it five in stoppage time but had the ball smothered at his feet by Miller after finding himself on the end of Darren Tapper's flick on.

Scoop's Man of the Match: Andy White – kept going all game and if it wasn't for the lack of service, would have got himself a goal.

Scoop Rating: 4/10 – Bassett were out-muscled, outplayed and outclassed. Pewsey wanted it more and deservedly won by a comfortable margin despite having relatively few chances.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Sunday 20th September 2020 at 18:31