An excellent display of passing football helped Royal Wootton Bassett Town to a convincing 4-0 win against Oxford City Nomads.

A dominant second half display in which their visitors were played off the park inspired Royal Wootton Bassett Town to a resounding 4-0 victory against Oxford City Nomads.

Defensively sound in an evenly matched opening period, Bassett broke loose after the restart, scoring three times in a dazzling fifteen minute spell. The Oxfordshire side had no answer to the fluent passing game produced by Rich Hunter's team, and were fortunate not to be on the receiving end of an even heavier defeat.

Steve Robertson scored Bassett's opening two goals, before Nathan Hawkins and Dale Richards added gloss to a scoreline which, come full time, was more than a fair reflection of the gulf in class between the two teams on the day.

Robertson's first did, admittedly, come somewhat against the run of play.

As anticipated, Nomads themselves sought to get the ball on the deck and enjoyed a large amount of possession early on. That yielded just the one chance though, with Billy Gillet seeing a half volley rustle the side netting following Joey Roslan's cut back.

Moments later a well worked move saw the home side go in front. On the edge of the area, Robertson's reverse pass picked out the intelligent diagonal run of Lewis Thompson, who skipped around the last defender and visiting 'keeper Christian Lawrence before squaring across the face of goal.

Steve Olphert was on hand for what should have been a simple tap in, but he fluffed his lines. However, Robertson was on hand to clear things up, blasting high into the roof of net.

Aside from that, action was fairly limited in a cagey 45 minutes. Nomads did have a pair of half chances from range, but Curtis Meare was equal to both. He did have some difficulty dealing with Vjorn Suitana's 30-yard drive, which bounced up in front of him, but there was no danger of the rebound falling to a visiting attacker.

With just a goal in it at the break, it seemed a finely poised game.

That may have instilled a level of concern as in recent weeks, Bassett have been guilty of taking too much time to get going at the start of each half.

But Bassett came out firing in the second period, and come the hour mark the outcome of the game was a foregone conclusion.

In the 48th minute, a free kick from Lawrence in the right corner went straight to Richards, whose forward header was flicked on by Thompson into the feet of Robertson. And with the goal unguarded, the prolific forward produced a perfectly controlled lob from twenty yards.

Lawrence made up for that poor kick with an outstanding fingertip save, which pushed a Dan Bailey piledriver onto the bar and over. Then, from the resulting corner, he tipped over Thompson's curling effort, which seemed destined for the top corner.

Bassett's sustained pressure eventually told though, and the next time the hosts had a corner, Hawkins stole a yard on his marker and guided Bailey's delivery into the bottom right corner with a glancing heard.

It was soon 4-0. Thompson did brilliantly to win control of the ball near halfway, initiating a two-on-one break, which culminated in Richards steering a low shot in off the post.

Bassett were by now in buoyant mood, spraying the ball around with confidence and forcing Oxford to chase shadows. They could have extended their lead even further too.

Thompson, who seemed to be at heart of every Bassett foray forward, forced Lawrence into another save after a quickly taken free kick from Sam Packer to Robertson on the edge of the area had split the visiting defence.

His skill then allowed to him to effortlessly glide by a pair of defenders down the left before his cross was headed wide by Robertson.

Captain Matt Cheetham came close too, seeing his weighted shot from a Scott Walduck cut back acrobatically steered over the bar by Lawrence.

At the other end, Bassett were good value for their clean sheet too. Only once was Meare called into action in the second period, and he was alert at that moment, rushing off his line to block Seth Humphries sliding effort at the midfielder's feet.

Man of the match: Lewis Thompson – an outstanding display from the immensely gifted youngster. He was virtually unplayable, using his skill and pace to get by defenders while making contributions to three of Bassett's goals.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Sunday 2nd October 2016 at 15:36