Rylands Way, 17th March 2007

Despite performing arguably the worst they have all season, Wootton Bassett Town still soundly beat bottom side Ross Town 4-0 thanks to three goals in the first half to kill the game off.

However Bassett should have been a goal down after ten seconds. Stu Hemsley gave the ball away from the kick off, before a Rich Gee miskick put Dewi Stuart through on goal but the forward's attempted lob of James Domm sailed just wide.

After Hemsley fired just over moments earlier, Matty Bennett gave Bassett the lead with only four minutes gone. Gee played the winger through and after running half the length of the pitch without any pressure, Bennett coolly slotted into the far corner from 12 yards.

Midway through the half Steve Shaw crossed from the left, with the balling falling to Bennett at the far post. However Bennett shot straight at Adie Best from 15 yards.

On 27 minutes Chris Mills' lofted through ball set Andy White one-on-one with Best. White went for the lob but didn't get underneath the ball enough and the 'keeper was able to palm away for a corner.

Gee made up for White's miss, finding himself unmarked at the far post from Mills' corner and he smashed home from all of ten yards for the defenders' first of the season.

Seven minutes from time Gee initiated another attack from the back as Mills played through Bennett who fired just wide of goal from 20 yards.

Bassett made extremely hard work of their third two minutes before half time. Once again Mills set Bennett free down the right before the winger squared to White in a two-on-one situation. White should have tapped home for his tenth of the season but instead the ball bobbled and the forward fluffed his chance. Luckily for him, Mark King pounced on the loose ball at the far post, evaded one defender and tapped in to the open goal that lay before him.

Steve Yeardley almost gifted the visitors a goal just before the break when he was dispossessed by Lee Kavanagh whilst last man. Kavanagh squared to Stuart on the edge of the box and his effort was parried away by Domm.

The second half was once again all Bassett as the ball hardly left the Ross half. However the combination of an awful playing surface, a strong wind and some lacklustre football meant that all their pressure could create was half chance after half chance.

With twenty minutes left a Bennett half volley from 20 yards sailed just over before Hemsley made it four five minutes later.

Bennett once again made his way down the right wing before crossing into the danger area to White, who once again managed only to connect with air. Hemsley had made a darting run into the box from the centre of midfield and fired in from 8 yards after pouncing on the loose ball.

With the game on ice, Bassett slowed the tempo of the game right down causing the opposition's frustration to show as Sam Loftus and Anthony Jenkins were both cautioned in the dying minutes of the match.

With the win, Bassett stay in touch with the teams in the top half of the table but with only ten games left it would be a surprise if they cracked the top three and found themselves in a promotion spot; only near enough maximum points would make such a feat possible.

Scoop's Man of the Match: Matty Bennett – by far the best player on the pitch and gave the Ross defence the run around as he grabbed one goal and played a part in two of the others.

Scoop Rating: 5/10 – A poor performance but one that was more than enough to secure a comfortable victory. However the teams above Bassett in the table would relish going up against Bassett if this was how they played week in, week out.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Monday 21st September 2020 at 09:37