Woodmarsh, 13th April 2009

For the second time in four seasons, Wootton Bassett Town's promotion hopes came to a crushing end at Trowbridge Town as the south Wiltshire side came from behind to win 2-1.

A dubious penalty helped them on their way, but Bassett have only themselves to blame for blowing their lead as well as their chances at a long awaited return to the Hellenic Premier division.

Despite a slow and sluggish start, Bassett looked to be in the driving seat after the opening 45 minutes.

An instinctive header from Steve Yeardley following a Tom Berryman spill had put Dave Turner's side ahead midway through the opening half. The Trowbridge 'keeper failed to handle a firmly struck effort from Ryan Banks and Bassett's longest serving player nipped in to grab his tenth of the season.

And it should easily have been two five minutes before half time. Craig Wall beat Berryman with a thumping free kick but the ball rattled the left post.

However, it fell straight into the feet of Tom Ritchie, who was presented with the easiest of finishes. However, the midfielder took a touch before shooting, allowing Jerome Dyer to get across and make a last ditch block.

In injury time, Chris Oram came close to extending the lead when he rose to meet a Ritchie corner, but his effort was headed off the line and pumped up field to safety.

Ritchie's day didn't get any better when he was harshly adjudged to have handled in the area, despite the ball being blasted at him from a matter of yards just before the hour.

Thomas Mackinder, who had won the penalty, sent Stewart Thompson the wrong way to equalise for the hosts. If it wasn't for a mix up between Banks and Ritchie though, the penalty would likely never have been given as the pair overshot the ball, allowing the hosts to win a soft corner, from which the decision came.

Bassett were left to fend with a makeshift pair of forwards for a good portion of the second half after both Scott Ward and Craig Wall hobbled off, and failed to threaten.

Instead, their backs were put to the walls by the diminutive, but tricky forward Jamie Jordan, and he duly won the game with five minutes to go.

The youngster had threatened twice earlier. A Liam Edmundson slip midway through the half enabled him to shoot on the bounce from the edge of the area, but Thompson comfortably held.

Then a long Berryman free kick wasn't cleared and Jordan's snap shot from 12 yards was deflected just wide.

The winner eventually came though, and came about after the visiting defence failed to clear. The ball fell to the youngster on the edge of the area and he weighted his chipped shot perfectly to ensure Thompson was beaten.

Once again, Bassett had failed to muster anything of note from open play, and played to Trowbridge's strengths, with persistent long balls being dealt with rather comfortably by the imposing home defence.

Ward's exit at half time did not help matters as he had held the ball up well throughout the first half. However, a knock picked up against Malmesbury was to end his day early.

The inability to kill teams off has come back to haunt Bassett to often this season with the huge number of draws the team have produced, and they now cannot catch third placed Oxford City, despite the loss being only the fifth of the season.

Scoop's Man of the Match: Steve Yeardley – worked his socks off for the entire 90 minutes, grabbing an instinctive goal as well as chasing down every ball he could.

Scoop Rating: 4/10 – the performance was poor and got what it deserved as Bassett failed to finish off opposition, who should have been put away by half time.

Last modified on Monday 22nd June 2015 at 23:38