Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development fell to a narrow defeat against Frome Collegians in their Fountains Trophies Senior Cup quarter final tie at the Sustain Stadium.

Frome had won 4-1 on their last visit to the Sustain Stadium on the opening day of the season and followed that up with a comfortable 6-2 win in the return league fixture. Bassett were therefore hoping to avenge those two heavy league defeats and it was certainly a much closer affair in the third meeting of the season.

In a tight first half, both sides created some good chances with the best falling the way of the visitors. They went close to taking the lead early on when an attempted clearance Bassett's George Lance was sliced and went just wide of the post.

Kevin Lartey looked the most likely player from Bassett to open the scoring and he should have done better with a header at the far post from a cross from left that went tamely into the hands of Frome 'keeper Ben Forester.

Frome continued to create chances at the other end as Max Biddiscombe fired wide before leading scorer Jack Newman had a great chance from a cross from the left but was only able to get to it with his hand rather than his head and it in any event went wide of the post.

The closest either side came to scoring was from a Barry Sandquest free kick, Frome's Joe Upshall getting on the end of the set piece but his header came back off the crossbar and was scrambled to safety.

The second half continued to be nip and tuck and it was Bassett who went closest to breaking the deadlock whe Lartey beat Forester with a shot but Upshall was on the line to clear to keep the scores level.

Both sides continued to create chances the best falling the way of Upshall, but he fired over when an attempted clearance from a Biddiscombe free kick fell to him in the box.

The deadlock was finally broken late in the game. Another free kick, this time from Theo Sing, was played into the box and found Ross Knapton, whose looping header went just inside the far post for the only goal of the game.

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Sunday 23rd April 2023 at 17:16