Southern League Premier South – Saturday 31st January 2026
Basingstoke Town 1 vs 1 Uxbridge Attendance 627
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
With Manager Dan Brownlie’s serving another touch-line ban, assistant Manager Aaron Nicholson led today’s line-up for today’s visit of Uxbridge, which was: 1. Simon Grant, 2. James Clark, 3. Joe O’Loughlin, 4. Ben Cook, 5. Scott Armsworth, 6. Billy Upton (Capt), 7. Tom Blake, 8. George Reid, 9. Cheick Sylla, 10. Joe Barough, 11. Robbie Gallagher
On the bench: 12. Jack Ball, 14. Josh Green, 15. D’Andre Brown, 16.James Dickson, 17. Lloyd Snell
Referee – Colman O’Meara
With the expected rain nowhere to be seen, this crucial mid-table battle for the points got underway, with Basingstoke attacking the car-park end in the first-half, but neither side started quickly with the visitors winning the early exchanges, as we hit the ten-minute mark.
Stoke’s first real attack came a minute later, from a corner-kick on the right, but Cheick Sylla, who found space headed poorly over the bar.
Robbie Gallagher, created the next chance, as a cross from the right, saw the ball rebound towards the keeper, who appeared to save it with his legs, and as the ball rolled towards the line, an Uxbridge defender sweeped the ball clear.
Unfortunately those two chances, were the highlights of a drab opening twenty-minutes.
The game continued in this fashion, until the half-hour mark, when the visitors broke the deadlock, as an attack from the left, created a shot that Simon Grant made the save low to his right, but could only parry the shot towards ex-Stoke forward Nnamdi Nwachuku, who tapped the ball home from five yards. Basingstoke 0-1 Uxbridge.
The visitors came close to doubling their lead two minutes later, as a through ball, saw an Uxbridge forward fortunately toe-poke his shot over the crossbar.
It was Stoke who should have then levelled the scoring as a left-foot cross from Tom Blake, was met by Scott Armsworth, but he failed to direct his header on target.
This appeared to spark Stoke into a bit of life, as we held Uxbridge in their final third of the pitch, for the next two minutes, which culminated in a left-foot shot from Blake that whizzed through a crowd of players, but alas three yards wide of the right-hand post.
Uxbridge then missed two opportunities to double their lead within the final five minutes before the break, as firstly their No.10 wormed his way through three Stoke defenders, but then sliced his shot twelve yards from goal, and a minute later a through ball saw an Uxbridge player smash a volley a yard wide of the right-hand post.
After a two-minute delay as an Uxbridge player received a treatment, which saw George Reid go in the book, we started two minutes of added-time, which saw Stoke break on the left, and Joe O’Loughlin shot, come cross, rebounded off the goalkeepers legs and flew clear, and ten seconds later, the referee called time on the first-half, with Stoke having a lot to do to get back into the game.
Halftime Score: Basingstoke Town 0 vs 1 Uxbridge
With no changes by Stoke at halftime, the second-half regrettably got off to a similar poor start, as both teams struggled to put more than three passes together, as we hit the hour-mark, before Uxbridge missed their next chance, as a poor header back to Grant, fell to an Uxbridge forward, who hooked his shot wide of the left-hand post.
Stoke made it’s first change of the day, as Joe Barough was replaced by D’Andre Brown (61 mins).
The Stoke fans behind the terraced-end were doing their best to inspire the team into action, as we made our second-change with Ben Cook replaced by Lloyd Snell (69 mins).
It was Blake who then forced a save out of the keeper, as he bent his free-kick around the one-man wall, but the ball nice for the keeper, as he dived to his left and parried the ball away.
Uxbridge then missed yet more chance to put this game away, as another mis-directed header fell to a Uxbridge player, but his shot was poor flying wide.
Now in the final twenty-minutes of the game, Stoke started to instill some pressure on the Uxbridge defence, as we started to win more free-kicks close to the penalty-area, but failed to trouble the keeper, even when D’Andre Brown, under pressure, poked his shot from four yards into the side-netting.
Grant was then forced into another save, as Uxbridge then broke, but Grant got a hand to the ball and Armsworth hacked the ball clear.
There was then a long delay as an Uxbridge player received treatment close to their dugout, which allowed Stoke to make its third change as Scott Armsworth was replaced by the returning Jack Ball (87 mins), as it was also confirmed that their would be ten added-minutes.
Stoke were still struggling to create anything, until another large piece of luck fell our way, as from a Clark header, but the ball was only-half cleared and Reid nipped in and got to the ball as an Uxbridge mis-timed his clearance and the referee pointed to the penalty-spot. It was Clark who stepped up and found the net, despite the keeper getting a slight touch to it. GOAL! Basingstoke Town 1 – 1 Uxbridge (Clark 90+7 mins Pen)
Then from pulling the game back level, Stoke could have got the winner, as Reid’s chip beautifully found Sylla five yards out, but his volley lacked power, and fell straight to the keeper.
A minute later the referee blew the final whistle, and we shared the points.
Fulltime Score: Basingstoke Town 1 vs 1 Uxbridge
Clark 90+7 mins (Pen), Nwachuku 30 mins,
Match Thought’s
For those who thought the Weymouth game was dull, yesterdays was drab, and Dan/Aaron used their “Get out of Free” jail-card to earn a point. The effort was there, but the second team in a row, who simply shut down our wingers, and from their we struggled. Uxbridge will be kicking themselves for missing what was five really good chances to put the game away.
We now head into February where we have four tough games on paper at least.
We sit in eleventh, but our winless run extends to four games now.
Up Next:
We are on the road at Havant & Waterlooville next Saturday (7th), in the league.
Match Report by Martin French..
English 
Polish 