North-Hants Cup Semi Final – Tuesday 25th February 2025
Basingstoke Town 3 vs 0 Andover New Street Attendance TBC
Where: Winklebury Centre, Winklebury Way, Basingstoke. RG23 8BF
Manager Dan Brownlie line-up for this Semi-Final game clash was: 1. Simon Grant, 2. Aleks Kokoszka, 3. JL Colwell, 4. Harry Bowden, 5. James Clark, 6. Billy Upton (Capt), 7. Jayden Brissett, 8. James Dickson, 9. Pele Koulsseoue, 10. Ben Cook, 11. George Reid
On the bench: 12. Markus Johnson-Schuster, 14. Charlie Barlow, 15. Scott Armsworth & 16. Gordon Weston-Brown
Referee – Harry Warner
Basingstoke started this Semi-Final game with a very strong line-up and Stoke attacked from the start with what seemed a lot more pace, and after a quick passing move, opened the scoring as Pele Koulsseoue, neatly found the bottom left-hand corner of the net GOAL! Basingstoke Town 1 – 0 Andover New Street (Koulsseoue 5 Mins)
Stoke continued to push forward looking for a second goal, as Andover were struggling to get near our penalty area, but the visitors did have a shot from ten yards out that flew high over the bar.
Jayden Brissett nearly added a second, as he smashed a shot that the keeper palmed a way for a corner on the right.
Stoke did double their lead on twenty-six minutes, as a quick passing movement allowed Koulsseoue to crash his shot past the keeper GOAL!! Basingstoke Town 2 – 0 Andover New Street (Koulsseoue 26 Mins)
Brissett then nearly added a shot as he broke into the left-side of the penalty are and smashed a shot that the keeper was able to palm away.
Stoke playing some fluent football, then added their third just before the break, with Brissett finding the net. GOAL!!! Basingstoke Town 3 – 0 Andover New Street (Brissett 44 Mins)
The referee then blew the halftime whistle with Stoke with one foot in the final.
Halftime Score: Basingstoke Town 3 vs 0 Andover New Street
Stoke still continued to play the better football in the second-half, but Andover were fighting hard to keep us out.
Billy Upton then appeared to have picked up an injury, and takes his armband off, but our first change was George Reid replaced by Charlie Barlow (55 mins).
Minutes later we had the ball in the net, but it was disallowed by the linesman.
Stoke then made it’s second change as Jayden Brissett was replaced by Gordon Weston-Brown (63 mins).
Although Stoke were pushing forward the cutting edge in the first-half was a missing, and it was time for our final two changes as Markus Johnson-Schuster replaced James Clark, and Scott Armsworth replaced Ben Cook (69 mins).
Andover then had their best chance of the game, but Simon Grant was able to get a hand to it, and push it out for a corner.
There was very little more action to note and the game drifted to a close with us reaching the final for the third year in a row.
Full-time Score: Basingstoke Town 3 vs 0 Andover New Street
Koulsseoue 5 & 26 mins, Brissett 44 mins
Match Thought’s
As soon as we had scored our second goal, the game was pretty much over, as our strong line-up overpowered the efforts of Andover. Andover also rested some of their players in the second-half in preparation of their FA Vase Qtr-final against Heanor Town.
A good run-out for some of our academy players and good to see Pele Koulsseoue find the net (both with his right foot).
Interesting to see who will be between the sticks at Tiverton. Lots of rumours flying around about that, but no doubt we will know Saturday morning.
Big game Saturday and a long trip to Tiverton, on a pitch that may be very heavy.
Up Next:
We are back on the road next Saturday (1st March), and back into Devon in a potential must-win game at Tiverton.
Match Report by Martin French..
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