Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development came close to becoming the first team to take points off Swindon Supermarine Development in the Wiltshire League Premier Division this season, only to lose 5-2 after a late rally from the visitors.

Few who saw the results come through at five o'clock on Saturday would have appreciated how close Supermarine were to dropping their first points. The fact that their perfect record is still intact is down to some resolute defending when under pressure during the second half and some clinical finishing, including two wonder strikes in injury time at the end of the game.

Bassett started the game well with Prince Nyongolo causing the Supermarine defence all kinds of problems down the left-hand side early on.

However, it would be the visitors who got themselves in front on six minutes. An intended back-pass from Noah Cranswick-Coates fell well short of keeper Lewis Clark and Ryan Alexander nipped in to square to Tom Phillips to slide home for his eighth goal of the season.

It got even better for Supermarine on 14 minutes when an Evan Black effort came off the head of the unfortunate Cranswick-Coates, who was having an afternoon he will quickly want to forget, and looped over keeper Lewis and into the net off the far post for 2-0.

Despite going two down to the league leaders, Bassett pressed hard to get themselves back in the game and were rewarded five minutes after going two down when Matt Capel cut in from the left and curled his shot past Matt Goldfinch in the Supermarine goal for 2-1.

Ten minutes later parity was restored and it was Nyongolo, who was having a good first half, with the goal with a powerful free kick from outside the box that beat Goldfinch to level matters up at 2-2.

The second half continued to be competitive with both teams creating chances.

As the half wore on Bassett started to get in the ascendanc,y creating the better chances and winning several corners. They laid siege to the Supermarine goal but a combination of some great saves by Goldfinch and a couple of outstanding blocks from his defenders when it looked like the home side would score meant it remained 2-2.

Three minutes from time a free kick out of defence was well controlled by Black who played a neat one-two on the edge of the home box to find himself in the clear and finish in style to restore the lead for Supermarine.

Bassett sought to get back on level terms but were to then concede two more in injury time.

In the 92nd minute Supermarine were awarded a free kick 25 yards out and Cheldon Valere took responsibility for the free kick and curled a beauty into the top corner of Clark's net giving the Bassett keeper no chance with a perfectly placed strike.

There was still time for one more, Valere cutting in from the left and curling one into the top corner on the other side of the net, again giving Clark no chance with what was the very last kick of the game.

While it was a 5-2 win for the unbeaten league leaders to maintain their perfect start, they knew they had been severely tested on the day by Bassett, and the final score did not reflect the overall balance of play over the afternoon.

Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Sunday 14th September 2025 at 21:08