Monday Morning Quarterback – Week 12 Upon Further Review

Monday Morning Quarterback – Week 12 Upon Further Review
With the weather devastating most teams fixture list in the past two weeks, Basingstoke had three games in an amazing eight days of football, after a superb performance and deserved victory on the road at Weymouth, a disappointing loss at home to 3rd placed Salisbury and after the goal-fest at the Camrose on Saturday, when we took apart relegation doomed Staines Town, this allows us some small amount of breathing space, as we sit three points away from relegation.
Now many fans may state we are only one loss away from the bottom, but firstly we were in the bottom three before Weymouth and now with 6 out of 9 points we have a number of other teams below us and under the same pressure to pick up points.
The ten goal thrashing, was led by winger Sam Smart, who came to life in the second half, as he ran riot down the right wing. His game stats in my view were 4 assists and 1 goal on the day. His performance was followed by Manny Williams who scored two on the day, missed a penalty, a personal trait of Basingstoke Town these days and had two other good chances saved by the keeper who picked the all out the net with good humour and was probably surprised by the superb reception he got behind the goal after the game.
A word on Staines Town, however despite their financial and playing situation, they took the hammering without resulting to heavy physical unwarranted tackles, but if this has been there general line-up, I am wondering how other teams, who have far more potent attacking forces, have not scored more goals against a team that had literally no defensive midfield. Staines last few results have been a 3-1 loss at Kings Langley, a 2-4 loss at home to Wimborne Town and 3-0 loss at Swindon Supermarine. These are hardly signs of a team that gave away 10 goals, but on in all honesty it could have been 17 or 18 on Saturday.
Our next three games however still prove we still have a battle ahead, as we host Kings Langley at the Camrose Saturday, before we are back on the road for two more matches, a Tuesday night match at Chesham Utd and then trip down the A30 for the return match against 2nd placed Salisbury.
Matches Around Our League
Despite losing a further four games to the weather, the big clash of the weekend was Weymouth’s visit to Met Police. In another see-saw match Met Police equalised late to earn a point in another 4-4 game at the Imber Court Sports Ground. It appears Weymouth’s deadly striker may have put his boots on the right feet this week, as he fired home a hat-trick inside an hour. However, the Met Police’s Luke Robertson also fired home a second-half hat-trick including as mentioned the late equaliser on 90 minutes. Both teams remained in their league standings of 3rd & 4th respectively.
League Leaders Taunton Town did enough to pick-up another 3 points as they scored the only goal of the game in 0-1 result at Walton Casuals. A 28th minute goal by Ryan Brett leaves Taunton 4pts clear at the top.
Second-placed Salisbury’s home game against Farnborough fell foul of the weather, which leaves a new team into the play-off places as Poole Town moved into 5th place despite only picking up a well earned point in 1-1 draw at Swindon Supermarine. No surprises who scored for the Marine, as Conor McDonagh added to his season’s tally in the first half, before an 84 minute equaliser by Jake Scrimshaw, was enough for the Dolphins to leap-frog over Harrow Borough who fell 3-2 at lowly Dorchester Town.

Ok, the top of the table looks like this;

At the bottom Gosport Borough pulled away from the relegation zone after a 3-1 home win against relegation rivals Frome Town. Three goals within the space of 10 mins, mid-way through the second-half were enough to move them upto 19th spot. Frome’s only response was a consolation goal on 86mins by Joshua Morgan-Williams. Frome remain in 21st place. Dorchester Town flew up the table to 15th are they held onto win 3-2 at home win against Harrow Borough.
In 20th place is Chesham Utd again, after they were one of the teams as their game at Tiverton was one of the games postponed.
Walton Casuals who I mentioned earlier lost to Taunton and now sit in 18th place.

In the relegation places none of the bottom three played, therefore the table remains as shown;

Basingstoke Town leading Goal Scorer Chart
Ok a massive update in the team’s goal-scoring with Manny Williams entering the table as well. The up-to-date goal-scoring league table with 56 goals in total and a new leader at the top:
Sam Argent 10
Dean Stow 9
Sam Deadfield 7
Sam Smart 5
Jack McKnight 4 (Eastleigh Town)
Ben Wright 3
Harry Pearse 3
Zidane Akers 3
Manny Williams 2
Dan Collier 2
Oliver Harris 2
Own Goals 2
Callum Bunting 2 (Departed)
Dan Bayliss 1
Shane Hollamby 1

Hendon FC Watch

So after started to fall through the table with that 9 game losing streak, they have now gone on a drawing streak. This current streak is now at four draws in a row. Saturday they drew 3-3 at Wimborne Town, where the Magpies Tobias Holmes added another brace to his season’s tally. He now has 19 goals on the season.

Games This Week
There are just three games in the league this week, but two of them could affect our league position this week.
These are;
Dorchester Town (15th) vs Frome Town (21st)
Poole Town vs Tiverton Town (16th)

Your MMQ – Martin French