The fourth fixture league of the season saw Royal Wootton Bassett Town Under 13 Yellow travel away to Malmesbury Youth.
It was a rain soaked morning but that did nothing to dampen either side's appetite to win the game and get another three points on the table.
The opening few minutes were dominated by the Yellows with their now trademark up tempo passing and moving game commanded by last week's Player of the Match and this week's captain Lewis Taylor. The pitch was fast and wet and saw the skimming about making it hard to judge the bounce and pace of the ball.
The early Yellows' pressure was cut short by Malmesbury when on their first real attack managed to find their striker in a little bit of space who punished the Yellows by tucking the ball neatly into the bottom corner of the goal.
The wind had been taken out of the Yellows' sails by the goal and Malmesbury came alive, but the Bassett back line of Deniz McGeachie, Toby Tew and Nalani Hunt stood firm and stifled the now relentless assault of the Malmesbury team.
A double substitution from manager Anthony Moore brought the team back to life and only moments later Jack Rae on his debut played a ball through the Malmesbury defence to the substitute Patrick Otoo-Mensah, who calmly put the ball into the back of the net to make it 1-1.
The fire was back in the hearts of the Yellows and the quick passing was back too. When the ball was on the floor the Yellows looked unstoppable.
Another attack starting down the left hand side saw sisters Nalani and Alana Hunt link up and then Alana cross the ball into the box for Patrick to fire a shot towards goal only for the Malmesbury keeper to pull off a fantastic save, but the ball came down into the box and was latched onto by Jack Rae and fired into the open net.
Jack Andrews was now commanding the Yellows midfield allowing Jack Rae to start moving further forward and the advantage was back with the Yellows.
There were some creative runs down the right hand side from the newly sub on Ewan Painter, before Jack Rae got hold of the ball in the centre of the pitch ran forward and unleashed a shot from the edge of the box. Everyone stood still and watched as the ball seemed destined for the top corner apart from the Melmesbury keeper who managed to get a fingertip to it and Patrick who followed up the shot and slotted the loose ball home.
Not long after the referee called an end to the half with the score 3-1 to Bassett.
The second half didn't start like the first half finished and Malmesbury came out hungry to get themselves back in the game and after five or so minutes again managed a very slick passage of play and pulled the score back to 3-2.
The pressure carried on and was being taken care of by the back three with the occasional save needed for goalkeeper Joshua Moore.
One attack was countered well by Bassett with a long ball forward from centre back Toby Tew whose ball landed between the Malmesbury defence and goalkeeper. That brought the keeper charging off his line, only to have Patrick pinch the ball off the end of his foot as he was about to smash the ball back deep into the Yellows' half, and the Bassett calmly passed it into the gaping net.
This stirred the Yellow machine back into action and saw some mazey runs by right back Deniz McGeachie and some fast paced counters for captain Lewis Taylor.
Some more substitutions by Bassett saw the Reuben Badman slot into the right back position and Sam Watson into midfield. The impact was almost instant with Sam finding one of his trademark power shots fly straight past the keeper and into the net.
The Yellows then slowed the pace and controlled a lot of the possession before a late strike from Malmesbury made the last few minutes of the game a little more interesting.
The final score was 5-3 to the Yellows with Jack Rae picking up Player of the Match for a solid game on his debut and Supporters Player of the Match going to Patrick Otoo-Mensah for the three goals earning him his nickname of hat trick Patrick.
Credit: Paul Taylor
Last modified on Sunday 14th October 2018 at 20:51
