Bassett 2nd XI miss out in 11 goal thriller!

Bassett came out on the wrong side of an 11 goal thriller with the goals split 6-5 to West Wilts B.Despite having new faces and a shift in formation from the previous season, the plays gave a strong performance in their new roles. Debutant Adam White played his first league game alongside Ben Hares and Ollie Sighe for the 2nd XI and gave top performances, with Will Fieldsend looking to extend his run of great form.

The first half was off to a quick start with Bassett facing their first short corner of the day after West Wilts first attack. A new defensively line in the goal tried to keep out a quick shot from top of the D, only to find the ball powerfully struck into the back of the goal. Bassett did not let the early deficit affect them with quick attacks from James Greogory, Craig Mclauchlin and Lawrence Winter crafting out some spectacular passes, which won Bassett a short corner. Grant Kirkup opened up his account in Grant Kirkup fashion as he rifled in the short corner to the bottom left hand side of the goal. The game was close in midfield with Will Fieldsend and Ross Pinnuck battling hard to win tackles and set the forwards off on runs, however a breakaway from West Wilts allowed a ball to be played into the D for a deflected goal. James Gregory wasn't best pleased with this, as was the whole team, and he decided to pop in an equaliser soon after the restart. After more battling in midfield and some pressure added to the Bassett defence, a shot flicked up in the air hit Pete Sammon high in the chest, which resulted in a penalty flick. Robbie Stubbs before the game said he would do some YMCA moves to put the players off, but unfortunately Robbie forgot he wanted to be a Village person, and the ball went high into the net. Now if the prospect of YMCA moves on a hockey pitch sounds magical, what happened next would have made Dynamo and David Blaines heads explode into glitter and bunny rabbits. Craig Mclauchlin picked the ball up outside the D, weaved his way in, turning and flat footing defenders, to then lift the ball into the opposite corner to bring the game back to 3-3. This alone could have won him man of the match. It was so good it even helped Pete's chest get better. Half time.

With the game in the balance at half time, the team huddled in the goal with a positive attitude. This was reflected right on the first whistle of the second half as a nice team move allowed Ollie to score his first 2nd XI goal of his career to put Bassett in the lead 4-3. With West Wilts behind for the first time in the game they started to control possession in the midfield and on the wings and worked themselves to push for frequent attacks with numbers. This proved difficult and West Wilts capitalised twice to give them the lead. Again however Basset did not let this effect their mentality as Ben Hares proved a handful on the wing as he kept possession and drove into the D. Lawrence Winter picked up a pass which he then took into the D to score the goal he predicted he would in the car on the way their. His words were something along the lines of "Im gonna score a sick goal today bru". And that he did. Pinged up straight into the top right hand corner of the goal. Delicious. Magical. And back in the game. Bassett then decided to play to what we had, and didnt commit players forward in the hope of earning a hard fought point. Rob Appleby took full advantage of the rule changes as a crossed ball would have found an open team mate, only for him to the see Rob swoop in and bowl himself and the ball into the net. After untangling team mates and west wilts recovering from a head injury, West Wilts managed to find what was needed to win the game as they scored the 11th goal in a great game of hockey.

The team played to their strengths and did themselves proud. The season is long, and with 21 games to go there is a lot of promise and potential to come from the team and the younger players.