Basingstoke’s latest pre-season fixture took place last evening at National League South side Chippenham Town.
Despite a nice sunny evening, a smaller than expected number of Stoke fans made the trip to the Thornberry Surfacing Stadium, to see a strong starting line-up for the first-half, with notable changes from Saturday being Simon Dunn back with the Captains armband, plus Paul Strudley replacing Mark Scott in goal. Trialist A was once again up front for us.
Another competitive first-half saw both teams battle for midfield possession and despite both sides creating chances, neither team failed to beat their opposing keepers, with Bradley Wilson setting up Dan Rowe, who could only find the keeper from eight yards out, as the game went into the break goal-less.
Changes at halftime, saw the arrival of James Clark & Sam Argent, replacing Simon Dunn & Ben Cook.
Unsurprisingly Chippenham pushed forward more in the second-half, but either good interceptions by Stoke defenders or cracking saves by Strudley kept them out. This was not to say that Stoke did not have their possession as well, as we attacked a number of times down the left with Clark, Wilson & Johnson-Schuster creating a number of crosses into the heart of the Chippenham penalty area, but we failed to find that all-important finish.
As the game progressed we made one further change with Trialist A being replaced by a Trialist who played in the Hythe & Dibden match.
Struds pulled out one more save as we moved into the final minutes, and minutes later we broke into their half and despite calls for offside and handball, Rowe found a gap between Chippenham’s defence and clipped the ball over the oncoming keeper into the net.
The final couple minutes were played out and the referee blew the final whistle, on another successful pre-season adventure.
Chippenham Town 0 – 1 Basingstoke Town
Attendance was given as TBC
Up Next: Egham Town away Saturday 29th July 3pm KO
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