Sunday 28th March 2010 - Blunsdon Colts 'B' (A)

From the start, this looked like a clash of styles, with Bassett trying earnestly to keep to their passing and moving approach and Blunsdon content to fire long shots and leave an attacker up front to pick up scraps. This gave our hosts the upper hand and, a couple of Cox shots apart, Blunsdon looked like scoring at any moment. Their first goal came off a Bassett boot, however, with a panicky clearance finding a way between Isaac and his near post: 0 – 1

This early set-back seemed to rock our lads back on their heels and we found it difficult to make much impression at the other end. Dec Coffey was full of running, however, and our defence fought hard to cope with repeated attacks. Isaac saved the day a few times as usual!

The second goal was another rocket launch from far out which he had little chance to control, however, before the lurking forward pounced on it – a goal that next year's offside rule wouldn't have allowed of course: 0 – 2

Our heads didn't drop, however, and George and the two Decs still sought to play their football with reward coming in the shape of a fantastic Cox strike from a free-kick. He launched an unstoppable pin-point effort from way out which gave the keeper no chance: 1 – 2

Matt was putting in another sterling performance at the back and Harry began to dig his heels in to close down threats. James, for his part, really threw himself at the task as well with his throw-ins also adding to our attack.

There was still great threat from Blunsdon, however, and having rattled the woodwork at least twice and having a goal-line effort narrowly ruled out they grabbed a third goal from a few yards out: 1 – 3

Half-time: 1 – 3

Bassett emerged from the break with a completely different look about them and this was a much more even half. Our passing started to break-up the Blunsdon approach and Coffey and Cox started to find much more space with George beginning to have more impact in midfield. Charlie, now at the back, put helped to shore up our defence and Blunsdon barely troubled us. A deserved second goal now came from Matt who pounced on ball that the goalie couldn't get under control and slotted it home confidently: 2 – 3

We now looked the more likely and an equaliser began to look inevitable. Ollie made some telling attacks down the right and some last gasp defending was needed by our hosts to keep Cox at bay. Luck was against us again, however, and a fourth was conceded when our defence failed to clear and Blunsdon broke through a final time: 2 – 4

We still kept hammering away despite this set-back but there wasn't time to rescue it now defeat loomed.

Man of the Match: Declan Cox – a superb free-kick and a constant threat despite finding openings hard to come by today.

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