Southern League Premier South – Saturday 5th April 2025
Basingstoke Town 0 vs 1 Gosport Borough Attendance 774
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
With Dan Brownlie sitting in the stand, Aaron Nicholson went with a starting line-up of: 1. Simon Grant, 2. Marcus Johnson-Schuster, 3. Lewis Colwell, 4. Jack Ball, 5. Billy Upton (Capt), 6. Josh Green, 7. Jaden Brissett, 8. Malachi Ogunleye, 9.Liam Ferdinand, 10. Robbie Gallagher), 11. George Reid
On the bench: 12. Scott Armsworth, 14, James Clark, 15. Connor Barratt, 16. Ben Cook & 17. D’Andre Brown
Referee – Nicholas Whittington
With traffic problems in the surrounding area, the game finally got underway thirty- three minutes late, and it was Stoke on the front-foot in the opening minutes, as a header from the far post was headed away from under the bar and away, and then in the seventh minute, a cross from George Reid was met by Jack Ball, but his glanced header flied past the far right-hand post.
Fifteen minutes in and we have wasted four free-kicks, the latest Reid’s that flew ten yards over the bar.
Thirty minutes in, and Gosport have not spent more than thirty seconds in our half, as we continued to pin them in their half, and loud calls for a penalty when Billy Upton, is pulled over are waved away.
Stoke continued to press, but that final pass was missing, as we hit added-time and the first-half ended goal-less.
Halftime Score: Basingstoke Town 0 vs 0 Gosport Borough
Whilst some fans were still coming back from the bar, an attack by Gosport’s Nwachuku’s, slid the ball across to Dan Wooden, who made no mistake, and we went a goal behind. Basingstoke 0-1 Gosport
Stoke continued to press, but a shot from Jayden Brissett went sailing past the goal.
Stoke made their first change as Josh Green was replaced by Ben Cook (65 mins), whose first touch of the game was to take the free-kick Jack Ball had won outside the box, before the substitution.
Another Stoke corner was met again by Jack Ball, but it bounced comfortably to the Gosport keeper.
Stoke made their second change with Jayden Brissett replaced by James Clark (78 mins).
Stoke continued to struggle to break down the visitors defence, and many fans were checking their phones for other results for the teams below us in the league.
Gosport came close to adding a second, but Simon Grant was out to block the shot.
We then made two further changes, as Liam Ferdinand was replaced by D’Andre Brown, and Malachi Ogunleye for Connor Barratt (84 mins).
With two minutes of normal remaining, George Reid forced a low-down save by the Gosport keeper who pushed the shot around the post.
The referee announced six minutes of added-time, and Grant made another save, pushing the ball out for a corner.
The final two minutes were played out without incident, and Basingstoke went down to another home defeat.
Full-time Score: Basingstoke Town 0 vs 1 Gosport Borough
Wooden 46 mins,
Match Thought’s
Lots of possession and press in the first-half, and Stoke had a couple of chances in the first ten minutes, but again we really failed to trouble their keeper. Second-half Gosport’s defence appealed to handle us with ease, and the defeat send us back down to sixteenth, with other teams below closing in on us. Just two goals from our last five home games is relegation form.
Four tough matches remaining ahead, we will need at least a win out of one of them.
Up Next:
We are back on the road next Saturday as we head down to Dorset to take on a much improved Wimborne Town side (12th April).
Match Report by Martin French..
English 
Polish 
Another relegation performance at home. What has happened to Ferdinand and others.