Sunday 11th October 2009 - Penhill Allstars (H)

After three straight defeats and no points chalked up this season, Bassett approached this match with understandable nerves, but it soon became clear that this was a very different team to the one that lay down so easily last week. Slick passing and stout defending were the order of the day as Dec Coffey combined with Coxy to open up a Penhill defence who have, themselves, had a shaky start to the campaign. James soon showed how well he is adapting to his new found home in defence and Isaac made one or two reassuring saves. It was end-to-end stuff, though, and a goal looked possible at either end. With George starting on the bench, Dec Coffey floated in some delightful corners which had Penhill guessing. Harry looked very assured this week and controlled the box well and Matthew played a part all over the pitch, tackling and distributing the ball superbly.

Our goal came from a lovely move with the ball being sent out to Dec Coffey who rifled a diagonal pass across towards Coxy from the right wing. He, in turn, redirected it to George who slotted it home with a confident first time strike.

This spurred the Allstars into further attacks and we had to be alert in defence. Scott was majestic in defence and made several telling interceptions, showing just how much he was missed in last week's rout.

Half-time : 1 – 0

The second half began as evenly as the first with Penhill determined to grab one back, but it was Bassett who scored next. A pin-point corner from George was nodded home by Coxy with the goalie helpless and defenders looking on in wonder:

It was not to be an easy stroll to victory, however, as Penhill launched attack after attack and our lads had to throw themselves into painful tackles all over the pitch. Matt upended one Penhill attacker who looked as shocked as he did and Bailey made some telling interceptions of his own, striving to open up more space up front. Twice George had a chance to increase the lead, but a Penhill defender came to his team's rescue on each occasion.

Penhill finally got their deserved goal with a quick breakout from defence splitting the Bassett back row and Isaac was given no chance:

There then followed some very exciting play with Bassett pinned back in their area and Isaac's goal leading a charmed life. He made some great saves, although an inadvertent header from him over the bar and a pinball bounce-about which hit just about everybody in the area before sailing harmlessly showed that our luck may be finally changing. James and his fellow defenders were the heroes of the hour and they never stopped looking for the breakout to settle it.

The rain that had streamed down for much of the match finally stopped and the sun came out just as Paul blew the whistle and the gloomy start to the season also seemed to come to an end.

Man of the match: It was a team performance today with several outstanding contributions throughout the team but the award goes to Declan Coffey for his tireless and thoughtful play at both ends of the pitch. He summed up the spirit of this performance and thoroughly deserves his second hold of the trophy this season.

Last modified on Monday 22nd June 2015 at 23:39