Gerard Buxton Sports Ground, 6 November 2021

Royal Wootton Bassett Town secured their second league win and clean sheet in a row as they defeated Hallen 1-0 in manager Sam Collier's 100th league game in charge.

Collier shuffled the pack following his side's midweek humbling at the hands of Melksham Town in the Wiltshire Premier Shield.

And certainly during the opening 45 minutes, those personnel changes paid off as a strong performance saw the hosts go into the break a goal in front. Ultimately that would be all Bassett required to claim the points.

Matt Bennett - scoring for the second consecutive league game - provided the goal on the quarter hour mark as he headed home unmarked from Michael Miller's deflected cross after a stunning 24-pass move.

That lead could have been more heading into the interval - but Bassett found Hallen 'keeper Harry Thomas-Barker in outstanding form.

Shortly after Bassett took the lead, Thomas-Barker did well to turn a John Mills free kick around the post before twice being equal to Gio Wrona efforts.

His best stop came seven minutes before the break though when he produced an acrobatic save to tip Bennett's overhead kick over the bar.

While thwarted by the 'keeper's excellence on that occasion, Bennett would probably have felt he could have done better with two more chances as half time neared. But he skewed wide after latching onto a Mills through ball before narrowly shooting over after cutting in from the right side.

The second half was then a trickier affair for Bassett.

Hallen were fastest out of the blocks but, at least in the opening exchanges, unable to fashion anything other than a pair of half chances.

Bailey Gallagher then came close to doubling Bassett's lead but was unable to find a way past Thomas-Barker who parried away.

That chance for Bassett came somewhat against the run of play and Hallen were close to equalising when Jake Jackson shot on the turn and found the post with twenty minutes remaining.

The final stages of the match then proved to be hectic as both sides pushed for what would have been a second, decisive goal of the match.

Tommy Ouldridge volleyed wide, Mills shot across the face of goal and Bennett struck over for Bassett. For the visitors Dawid Regula failed narrowly to find the target after a swift counter, while Martin Stowell headed straight at Eddie Cavanagh from a last minute corner.

One goal was all the game would produce though - and, much to Bassett's delight, it was a Bennett strike that delivered the three points.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Tuesday 9th November 2021 at 09:12