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Royal Wootton Bassett Town Under 12 Blue kept their winning start to the season going despite not reaching peak levels as they visited Lydiard Youth Tigers. Bassett were hoping to lay down a marker for the rest of the league, but instead struggled to a scrappy victory against a determined Tigers team.
After building some early pressure, Bassett took the lead when a neat through ball from Elliott Tew sent Bryan Willson clean through on goal, where Willson had his first shot saved, but recovered the rebound, swivelled and drilled the ball across goal into the bottom left corner form the edge of the box.
The Blues, playing in their new orange away kit, soon made it 2-0 after some good build up play down the right hand side saw Liam Lye-Owens deliver a wicked cross into the danger zone looking for Tew, but the ball was turned into the goal by one of the opposition defenders as they tried to recover. Lye-Owens claimed it was going in anyway, but the dubious goals panel will certainly take a look.
Bassett were struggling to use the space on the pitch and the game became very congested as passing went out the window for the second fixture in a row and the game descended into crowd football.
From the chaos, the Blues kept creating opportunities through individual play, running through defenders but couldn't convert these chances, as Tigers players threw themselves in the way. The Tigers keeper also made a number of important saves, diving at the feet of Bassett players to prevent the Blues adding more goals.
At the other end of the field Josh Griffiths continued his excellent start as a Bassett player, confidently offering an option to his defence and distributing the ball beautifully. Debutant Karol Czekanski settled in brilliantly with a confident and calm performance in defence. Czekanski was wearing the captains arm band as a result of his excellent performances in training since Bassett splashed £55m on him in the last minutes of the transfer window and he nearly made it a debut to remember late on when he saw his shot from outside the box just fly over the bar.
Austin Tanner nearly managed to score on several occasions as he played a more advanced role, first being denied by the keeper and then just being caught by a rapid Tigers defender when he was bearing down on goal. Finley Marchment was a constant menace down the right flank for Bassett and was delivering some lethal crosses for Tanner, but they just couldn't quite convert them. Marchment also showed off some silky dribbling as he beat 4 players, before being crowded out.
Indy Iles-Jones martialled the back line superbly for the Blues and made multiple recovery runs throughout the first half to make sure the Blues kept their clean sheet intact. Helped out by Lucas Burberry, these two built a number of attacks down the left hand side, often involving Griffiths to play out of defence and set the Blues away.
It was from one of these build ups that Bassett added a third, when Summer Jones, played into Tew on the left hand side, who raced forward and slipped an excellent through ball into Sonny Parmaku who had made a fantastic run from deep. Parmaku gathered the ball, sprinted towards goal and attempted a rabona finish which the keeper excellently stopped. Parmaku was lucky to see the rebound fall at his feet and he turned it into the empty net. It was soon 4-0 when Parmaku won a freekick midway inside the Tigers half and up stepped Iles-Jones from defence. IIJ set himself, took a deep breath and then unleashed an absolute rocket, which screamed over the wall and went whistling into the top left corner.
Bassett started the second half with higher energy, but couldn't seem to flick the switch and get their passing going. They still extended their lead when Parmaku was fouled in the box and he picked himself up and despatched the penalty into the bottom left corner. It was soon 6-0 when Burberry bedazzled the opposition defenders with some excellent footwork and smashed a shot towards goal, which the keeper excellently saved, but only to push it out to Lye-Owens who had picked up a good spot and reacted superbly to squeeze the ball under the keeper and in to the net.
Lye-Owens thought he was going to add to his tally just minutes later when William Smith was brought down in the box after some lovely play down the right, saw him wriggle past a number of players, only to be stopped in his tracks. Lye-Owens drilled the ball to the left side, but saw his effort rebound out off the post and beyond a number of onrushing Blues players. Bassett did add a seventh though following some confusion in the Tigers defence after an offside flag was raised but no whistle was forthcoming. Bassett played on and Tew snuck a lovely ball in to Willson, who controlled wonderfully and then smashed a thunderbolt across goal and into the top right corner.
As the Tigers tired, Bassett tried to press home their advantage and made it 8-0 when Parmaku intercepted a goal kick, drove towards the area and curled the ball into the bottom left corner to complete his hat trick. Shortly after, Tew grabbed himself a goal in almost the exact same fashion when he intercepted the keepers clearance, powered towards the goal and despatched the ball into the bottom left corner.
The Blues will need to improve in all areas if they want to get the better of Ramsbury in a top of the league clash next week.
Credit: Nick Lye-Owens
Last modified on Sunday 11th October 2020 at 16:14