Royal Wootton Bassett Town returned from their winter break with a convincing 5-1 victory away at Frome Town, with the result lifting Adam Wood's side into second place in the South West Regional Women's Football League Division One Eastern.

A repeat of the scoreline when the teams met in Wiltshire back in September, the game followed a similar pattern too with Bassett leading 2-1 at the break before pulling away from Frome after the restart.

On this occasion though Bassett had to play from behind with Frome taking an early lead as Keira-Leigh Underhill headed in from a corner.

Bassett saw a double chance go to waste shortly after as Libby Davies forced a parry from Sophie Billet with Hannah Gulliver shooting wide from the rebound.

And the visitors almost found themselves 2-0 when Karen Perkins rose to meet another dangerous corner but, fortunately for Bassett, she didn't get enough on her header to trouble Millie Powell's goal.

After an indifferent start to the match, Maddy Elliott's 27th minute equaliser eventually settled Bassett down. She calmly slotted home after Davies' clever flick helped on a cross from Player of the Match Honor Fraser.

That goal began a spell of significant Bassett pressure. And after Holly Baker passed up the chance to put her side ahead, Kelly Nightingale soon enough made it 2-1, tapping into the net after Billet could only palm away a Gulliver free kick.

While remaining in the ascendancy until the interval, Bassett had to make the do with a slender half time lead.

Manager Wood would perhaps have been fretting that his side weren't further in front as Frome had two fine chances early in the second half.

Alice Starr was first to threaten but shot straight into Powell's arms. The Bassett 'keeper then did brilliantly to deny Martha Peet, racing off her line to smother after the Frome forward found herself through one-on-one.

But after surviving those scares, Bassett eventually pulled away from Frome.

Shortly after Fraser struck narrowly wide, some trickery from Davies opened up space for Gulliver to shoot and she extended Bassett's lead to 3-1 with a superb effort into the top corner.

Involved in two goals, Davies more than deserved to get her name on the scoresheet. But, despite four further chances falling her away, it seemed as though it wasn't going to be her day. However, early in stoppage time she poked home after Billet failed to hold onto a Gulliver free kick.

Davies then teed up Jasmine Kennedy who bundled home Bassett's fifth.

The result takes Bassett above Stockwood Wanderers on goal difference and closes the gap to leaders Poole Town to nine points with three games in hand still to play.

The destination of the title - and thus automatic promotion to tier five - is set to go to one of Poole, Bassett and Stockwood. And with Bassett and Poole still to play their season series against Stockwood, those four games could go a long way to determining who finishes in that position.

Credit: Stuart Smedley
Last modified on Sunday 7th January 2024 at 19:24