Royal Wootton Bassett Town finished as Wiltshire County Veterans Cup runners-up for a second season in a row after a convincing 4-0 final defeat against Melksham Town on a damp Friday evening at Green Lane Playing Fields, Devizes..

As to be expected in a cup final, both sides started the game at a high tempo and right from the first minute the game had a bit of an edge to it.

Bassett, already missing a couple of key players, suffered an early set-back when they lost record Men's First Team appearance maker Steve Yeardley to injury with just six minutes gone.

Despite the loss of their influential centre-back, it remained a tight and cagey affair until five minutes before half-time when the deadlock was finally broken by a goal from Melksham's Ian Dowell. The goal came after patient build-up play down the left-hand side. The move broke down on a couple of occasions, but Melksham kept probing and the ball was eventually laid back to Dowell just outside the 18-yard box and he hit a powerful right footed shot into the roof of the net giving Bassett 'keeper Stuart Langer no chance.

Having got in front Melksham were gifted a second goal just a minute later. A mix-up in the Bassett defence between Josh Connolly and Langer saw Connolly head the ball past his own keeper to the feet of Simon Charity, giving Melksham's leading scorer an open goal, albeit from a tight angle, which he duly put away for 2-0.

The second half saw Bassett try to get back into the match. However, a well-drilled Melksham defence dealt well with any attacks and restricted their opponents to half-chances that rarely troubled Melksham keeper Gareth Evans. The only real opportunity he had to deal with was a dangerous cross in from the right from Chris Head that he cleared with his feet.

Melksham increased their lead with ten minutes to go. A ball into the box found Kris Beasley, but he scuffed his attempted shot, which fortunately rebounded off a defender to Ian Dowell, whose neat back flick set up Charity for his second of the game.

Bassett's night then went from bad to worse when Brady Lilley received a second yellow card for an attempted tackle and was dismissed.

Melksham soon rounded off a good evening's work when Rob Cousins fired a free kick into the bottom corner of the net to make it 4-0 after a foul on the edge of the box by Connolly.

Melksham have now won the cup twice, having lifted the trophy for the first time back in 2020-21.

For Bassett, that is now defeat in consecutive County Cup finals - though this loss was less agonising than that suffered on penalties against Bradford Town last season.

The Veterans are now left to concentrate on the league matters. They are still in the Wiltshire League North Division title race, but have a lot of games still to play as a result of their cup exploits.

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Thursday 30th March 2023 at 09:34