Around the League in 48Hrs
Ok this is the second of my mid-weekly looks at the matches in our league this past 48hrs.
On Tuesday there was initially mean’t to be 5 games in our league, but two fell foul of FA Trophy replays. Those were 2nd placed Weymouth’s match at home to Gosport Borough and Poole Town’s home game against Swindon Supermarine.
Other matches saw Frome town replace Dorchester Town in the 3rd relegation spot after Dorchester’s Benjamin Seymour’s penalty was the difference between the two teams in a 0-1 away win in Somerset.
Kings Langley our opponents this Saturday continued their impressive run of form beating yet another playoff contender, Hendon Town 3-1 at home. This was their fourth win on the bounce which included a victory against Weymouth a week ago and moved them up into 12th place in the table.
A touch worrying for Saturday’s game, as the other game played on Tuesday night, was our dreadful home performance against Hartley Wintney.
Yes, Basingstoke had to jiggle their squad due to Sam Smart’s absence, the injury to Dan Collier, and one or two other players carrying knocks into the game, but that should not be an excuse for such terrible individual performances and an overall lack of passion on the night, that was our 4th league loss in a row, and which sent us plummeting down the league to a worrying 16th place and just 4 points above the relegation zone.
Just a month ago we were 7th and looking forwards to getting in the playoffs!
We have heard excuses about how they had to play an extra 30 minutes of football on Saturday, but that is no excuse for what was offered up on the Camrose pitch 24hrs ago.
On the evening we had a lot of possession but as it has been commented by various people on the forum, if our passing was poor, the simple crossing of the ball was abysmal by more than one just player and this had nothing to do with tiredness, but a simple lack of ability to beat the first defender or put it within 10yds of one of our players.
Just ten days ago Terry Brown, stated he would be seriously evaluating the whole squad and although new manager Martin Kuhl will want to look at the players himself, it is clear changes need to be made now sooner rather than later, if the season isn’t to be lost in December.
Those Basingstoke faithful along with me, who will take the trip to Sadikou Stadium on Saturday will expect and demand a better performance than what was served up Tuesday night and I wish Martin Kuhl my best wishes for the start of his Managerial tenure with Basingstoke.
So, to Wednesday night’s single game in our league, was where top of the table Taunton Town beat 3rd placed Salisbury 4-3 in an amazing game, in front of 602 fans at Viridor Stadium. Taunton held a 2-1 lead until an own goal (80mins), and a penalty by Luke Hopper on 84 mins, looked to give Salisbury a superb away win.
However, in this amazing league season for goals a plenty, Taunton fired back and equalised on 92 mins and then a Matthew Buse winner on 94 mins sent the home fans away happy into the Somerset night.
This pushed Taunton’s lead to 5pts at the top of the table although they have played at least one more game than the chasing pack.
Leading goal-scorers in the league currently stand as follows;
Ricardo German – Hendon Town 14
Brandon Goodship – Weymouth 13
Ian Traylor – Merthyr 11
Ryan Penney – Gosport Borough 10
I will however, finish on one sour note from Tuesday night’s game. I have since heard of an abusive verbal altercation between one or two fans and Terry Brown after the game, and I will go on personal record to state that this is totally unacceptable at our club.
English 
Polish 