Royal Wootton Bassett Town Logo 2 ‒ 1 Wroughton Logo

Development's gr-eight start continues courtesy of Gallagher winner

Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development, in third spot at the start of the day, had Wroughton as their visitors to the Gerard Buxton Sports Ground with the division's only unbeaten record under serious threat with the potent Wroughton strike force looking to return to winning ways after last week's heavy defeat at the hands of Frome Collegians.

It was the visitors who went ahead ten minutes in when the ball fell to Matt Bennett on the edge of the six yard box after good work from Aaron Maximen, and he made no mistake to notch his seventh of the season on the ground where he has made many appearances in the Hellenic League.

The home side were back on level terms on 18 minutes when manager Steve Yeardley, forced into playing due to injuries in the squad, got on the end of a Tony Joyce free kick to make it 1-1.

A couple of minutes later Wroughton went close to restoring their lead with a shot from distance which was acrobatically turned over by Adam House in the home side's goal. From the resulting corner the frame of the goal came to the home side's rescue as Wroughton went close again to restoring the lead, but it remained all square at the break.

With the wind behind their backs in the second half Bassett started to create goal scoring opportunities of their own.

Tyler Sheppard saw a header turned round for a corner by Wroughton keeper Jimmy Rae. The home side then went close to scoring from the resulting corner, Yeardley sliding in at the far post but just failing to connect with the low ball played across the Wroughton six-yard box.

As the clock ran down Wroughton came more into it again and went in search of a winner with Shane Hibbert, Aaron Maximen and Devan Bryan being a handful for the Bassett defence when the ball was in and around the home side's area. However, the best effort Wroughton were able to engineer was a Tom Price shot following a Bennett corner that went just over the bar.

There was to be a dramatic twist three minutes from time. Bailey Gallagher was fouled on the edge of the 18-yard box and after he got back to his feet he took the free kick himself, striking a superb low powerful shot past the wall into the bottom corner past Rae in the Wroughton goal.

The home side saw out the closing minutes to secure the 2-1 win and maintain their unbeaten start to the season and retain that top three position, two points behind Melksham Town Reserves but with four games in hand. Despite a second consecutive defeat Wroughton remain in fourth place.

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Monday 26th October 2020 at 08:57