Bassett started the first half very positively forcing Stratton to concede an early corner. Stratton looked in good shape passing the ball around forcing Bassett to chase the ball; Fraser needed to use his head to clear the ball on several occasions this was supported by a very hard battling Josh W. Bassett were struggling with their passing game, and players were taking risks by just clearing the ball away and not passing to a Yellow and Blue shirt. Joe was forced to make two early saves as Stratton found room to shoot, although from distance not really looking like scoring. Again Stratton push Bassett back and this time a very high volley and the ball is travelling towards Joe's goal. Joe watches the ball and only manages to punch the ball down allowing Jack to clear the ball back to the half way line. Right now Stratton are all over us, it looked like we lost our shape.

After ten minutes of football Bassett manage to get their first string of passing together, a good ball from Fraser played into the feet of Tyler, Tyler beats his defender and plays the ball back to Jake, and Jake thumps the ball goal bound. The ball travels towards the Stratton Goal and bounces just in front of the goal keeper. Bassett are still struggling to get into the game, our first attack at goal comes from Arron, Arron picks the ball up from Josh H and runs at the Stratton defence, and earns a corner. The corner could not be converted, although it was taken well. Our front two of Sam and Michael were not seeing the ball and could not challenge the Stratton defence. Bassett were starting to play the long ball over the top of the Stratton midfield giving our front two something to run onto. The back four of Regan, Jack, Josh and Jake were being tested too many times for my liking, they are being tested and pulled around by the waves of attacks. Bassett manage to clear their lines but Stratton again hit a long ball which finds Fraser, Fraser hits the ball away with his knee back towards the Stratton defenders, Josh W beats the on coming Stratton defender but his shot is just wide. Bassett are now just starting to play some football, a great ball from Tyler plays in Michael, Michael, using his pace, finds himself one on one with the goal keeper, but the shot is wide of the target. After some good defending from Josh H, plays a good ball to Sam, Sam finds himself one on one with the Stratton goal keeper, but the shot is saved. When Bassett break they are caught off side, Stratton's back four were very good at stepping up which Bassett forwards struggled to cope with. I must say the flag went up too many times and I would need to question if the rules were being applied correctly which on two occasions I saw the flag raised when our forward who received the ball was very clearly onside.

Then Stratton put together some very good passing which opens up some space through the Bassett defence, the Stratton forward shoots and the ball fly's into the left hand side of the goal beating the diving Joe. The first half ended with Stratton in the lead.

The second half kicked off with two changes, Sam is replaced by Callum M also Ben is on and Tyler is off. Bassett are now looking like a team as the passing has improved which kicks off by Callum down the left working hard to release Sam or Michael. A long shot is played by Callum to Arron, Arron chases the ball but the Stratton keeper just clears the ball. Ben and Arron started to link well on the right, but Stratton defended well not giving Bassett any opportunities. This was frustrating the Bassett players who were finding the decisions hard to cope with, forcing the ref to stop play and have a word. Jake is replaced by Scott as left back. Bassett again and again place some pressure on Stratton but I must say we did not look like we were going to score. Sam is back on and Michael is off. Stratton again passing the ball around, but some good tackles by Scott, Regan, Jack and Josh stops most of the attacks. Bassett then break as Josh beats the off side trap, Josh shoots but the goal keeper pulls off a good save. Bassett are playing some good football now passing the ball around with some authority Callum was playing some good balls as well as winning the ball in those forward positions. Arron and Fraser are replaced by Tyler and Sam. Bassett had more chances in the second half and the football had improved. Final score 1 – 0 to Stratton.

I would say that a draw would have been an appropriate score line I don't think we were good enough on the day, although we played better in the second half. On too many occasions we did not play the easy ball, on two occasions Ben was free on the right but no one played the pass. We also lost our cool, lets learn from this and on some occasions we know that decisions will not go our way, at the end of the day the referee's decision is final. We now need to put this game behind us, build on our team spirit, and learn from this experience.

Credit: Andy Walduck
Last modified on Thursday 31st December 2020 at 13:08