09 Oct 2011 - Marlborough Youth (H)

This weekend saw Bassett under 10s welcome Marlborough Youth to Ballards Ash for the 1st round proper of the League cup. On a very windy day the advice to the players was to keep the ball on the ground.

Bassett won the toss and elected to play with the wind in the first half, thinking this would be an advantage. They started brightly enough, but soon enough found the wind to be their enemy not their friend, ball control was difficult, getting the correct pace on the pass was hard, and anything in the air was impossible. But the lads battled on and soon were putting Marlborough under pressure and winning two corners in succession. Jack hit a good shot, but it lifted and went just over the crossbar, keeping the pressure on Joe intercepted a Marlborough goal kick and was unlucky when his long shot went just wide. With Charlie missing due to illness, Chas was asked to play in defence, maybe not his natural position, but all the same he did his job alongside Nat, who was superb in stopping Marlborough getting anywhere near Bassett's goal.

With 10 minutes gone it was time to introduce James A for his debut for the club. Bassett kept the pressure on with several attempts at goal, but finally the breakthrough came when after some good teamwork; the ball fell to Joe who finished with style, 1-0 at last.

But would this unlock Marlborough? Despite Bassett keeping the pressure on they were unable to add to the score before halftime.

The halftime team talk was about playing the football we all know they are capable of, and again keeping the ball on the ground and passing it around. Bassett had the majority of possession in the first half, but needed to turn that into goals in the second half.

Playing into the wind second half, Bassett were starting to move the ball around much better, but still the wind was making the ball very difficult to judge and control. Billy moving out to right midfield was having great success getting down the line, with Joe and James finding more and more space it was inevitable Bassett would score, but the goal when it came was a great individual one from Jack who beat 4 players through the middle rounded the keeper to pass the ball into an empty net. This was followed shortly after by almost a carbon copy, with Jack this time chipping the keeper. 3-0. Marlborough however weren't going to give up and it took some good defending from James A to keep them at bay.

Going forward now Bassett were passing the ball around and exploiting the space, James was very unlucky when his shot was smartly saved by the keeper. Billy also has a good attempt saved. Joe in the middle was taking up some great positions and could have scored easily a several occasions, if the ball had found its way to him.

So it finished 3-0, first clean sheet, not the best performance ever, but considering the very difficult conditions, it was a good result, and put the team into the draw for the 2nd round. Special mention to James A on his debut, he made a good contribution, and also to Joe who was asked to do a difficult job today and protect the defence against a swirling wind, and also support the attack, he ran the midfield and worked tirelessly and kept getting into great positions even though he didn't always get the ball played to him. Well done.

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