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Royal Wootton Bassett Town Development suffered a heavy defeat against Wiltshire League Premier Division leaders Shrewton United, conceding four times in a 25 minute first half spell before losing 4-1.
The league leaders travelled to the north of the county without the division's leading scorer Kian Tydeman and his fellow strike partner Justin Bennett to play an in-form opponent.
Shrewton had won the first fixture between the sides at the end of September 3-2 thanks to a late winner and since that narrow defeat Bassett had gone on an eight-game unbeaten run in the league that had seen them move up to fifth place in the table.
However, any thoughts that Shrewton would miss their prolific strike force were quickly dispelled as a blistering start from the visitors saw them go 2-0 up in the first ten minutes.
Soloman Sale was making his first appearance of the season for Shrewton and put his side ahead on five minutes as he capitalised on a defensive mix up to score his first goal for Shrewton since netting the winner against Shrivenham at the back end of last season.
Three minutes later it was 2-0 after the home side conceded possession in their own half and an excellent cross from the right from Jake Hardy to the far side of the box found the head of Charlie Utterson whose perfectly placed header back across goal gave Adam House in the Bassett goal no chance.
It got even worse for Bassett on 24 minutes and once again the home side were the architects of their own downfall. Sanjay Samuda intercepted a loose ball out from House, rounded Omar Sisay before slotting the ball past House into the far bottom corner of the net for 3-0.
A minute later it was effectively game over as Shrewton scored a fourth. Utterson went from scorer to provider, playing in Lewis Cross who rounded House before slotting into an empty net to make it 4-0 to the visitors.
Bassett managed to get to half time without conceding again but the visitors had just been too hot to handle in that opening half and the game was as good as over as a contest at the break.
With the hard work having been done in that opening half, Shrewton could have been forgiven for taking their foot off the gas but they continued to probe for more goals.
But whatever manager Mark Simpkins said to his Bassett side at half time, coupled with the introduction of Mani Mesas and George Staten, saw the home side put in a much improved second half showing as they looked to get back into the game.
While in the first half it had been a case of Shrewton being clinical in front of goal, the second half saw the other side of their game as they worked tirelessly to deny Bassett any chance of getting back in the game with some well organised defensive play.
Bassett did finally pull one back 17 minutes from time, leading scorer Prince Nyongolo being set up by an excellent through ball from Mesas for his eleventh goal of the season.
The well disciplined Shrewton defence made sure that there would be no further goals though as it finished 4-1 to see Shrewton move nine points clear at the top of the table.
Credit: Mark Smedley
Last modified on Sunday 30th November 2025 at 21:00
