Oaklands Park, 3 February 2024

For the second time in three days Royal Wootton Bassett Town fell to a 1-0 defeat against Roman Glass St George. This time Bassett's loss came in the Hellenic League Premier Division, with the result seeing sixth place Roman Glass close the gap between the teams to seven points with ten games to go.

Sam Collier's side will feel a sense of injustice about the outcome of the teams' latest meeting - their fourth of the season.

Bassett were forced to play for three-quarters of the match with ten men and with defender Luke Softley in goal after 'keeper Rob Brown was dismissed for scything down Conor Hartley.

While there were few complaints about that decision, the only goal of the game came courtesy of a contentious penalty awarded for a soft-looking foul by Adam Corcoran on the stroke of half time.

The Bassett captain then had a goal controversially chalked off for offside with twenty minutes remaining - with that coming shortly after the hosts had been reduced to ten men themselves with Mike Bryant seeing red following another debatable decision.

The loss will sting Bassett. But they can certainly take some solace from a strong defensive performance that saw Roman Glass rarely threaten Softley after he donned the gloves. Indeed, he was not callled upon to make a save and the first time he touched the ball was to pick it out of the net - a good 20 minutes after taking over between the sticks.

The only problem for Bassett was that Elliot Jones in the Roman Glass goal was not troubled over the course of the 90 minutes.

Roman Glass were the more lively in the opening exchanges, but the best opportunity they could muster was a Lewis Leigh-Gilchrist effort that was blocked.

The home side were soon dealt a seemingly significant advantage when Brown was dismissed. But they failed to make the extra man - and the fact Bassett had an outfield player in goal - pay off. Although having a lot of the ball, Roman Glass were rather toothless in attack.

But on the stroke of half time they got lucky. Corcoran was punished for not much at all and Leigh-Gilchrist - the match-winner in Wednesday's Floodlit Cup quarter final tie - made no mistake from the spot.

The numbers on each side were evened up on the hour as Bryant received his marching orders.

Bassett were then in the ascendancy, albeit not making many clear cut chances. The one they did have saw Corcoran help the ball into the back of the net, only for the assistant referee's flag to rule it out.

Aside from that the visitors didn't appear likely to fashion a goal and at the end of a frustrating 90 minutes Bassett found themselves on the end of a third straight single goal defeat.

Bassett do remain in third - though that position could come under threat next week when Collier and his team visit fourth place Slimbridge.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Saturday 3rd February 2024 at 21:15