Youth Team: Boreham Wood 5 Basingstoke Town 0

Boreham Wood Yth 5 Basingstoke Town Yth 0

Written by Jason Bristow
Wednesday, 03 February 2010

Basingstoke Town crashed out of the league cup in the quarter final stage to a very well organised Boreham wood side. Basingstoke were without several key players for this tie due to exams and injuries and this meant re-shuffling the pack with a couple of players being drafted in and some playing out of position. It was not ideal circumstances but the team picked I would have expected to be able to compete.

As the game kicked off it was obvious from the start that the opposition were going to try and keep the ball as much as possible and try to frustrate us. We had to change our formation to stop their midfielders getting so much time on the ball and for a large part of the first half this seemed to work, however the home team did take the lead after almost 20 mins when a poor free kick took a wicked deflection and wrong footed Lee Allen in goal who could only watch as the ball trickled in the corner. After this Stoke applied some pressure and were almost level when a great through ball from Joe Williams found Matt Sheedy who could only watch as his shot just sailed over the bar. Several efforts from Elliot Hobden were the only other real highlights from the first half. Half time Boreham Wood 1-0 Basingstoke

Town were on top for the last part of the first half and started the second half the same, long range efforts from Grant Powell and Elliot Hobden failed to hit the target and then Basingstoke were hit with a breakaway goal that seemed to knock the stuffing out of them a bit. The next 15 mins was very disappointing as we never got close enough to the opposition and failed to match the work rate that has seen us have success in so many games. With 20 mins to go the hosts added a third with a well worked goal although from our point of view disappointing the way we gave the ball away and never reacted. The fourth came not too long after when a routine long ball was not dealt with and this left a one on one which was comfortably converted. With the players now almost chasing shadows the final few minutes were a formality and the fifth goal came in the last minute when again some naïve defending allowed a easy route to goal for the forward to square for an open goal.

It was very disappointing to lose 5-0 in the quarter final, and it is easy to use the excuse that we had several key players missing, and although I am convinced had they been playing the performance and scoreline would have been completely different, it does not take away from the fact that the players that took the field did not perform to their usual standards. When we went behind to the second goal the reaction was very disappointing, we have been in that situation a couple of times before this season but the character of the team has always responded positively and clawed out results. This was not apparent today and for me that was the most frustrating thing. I can accept that players have bad days, every player does but there is no excuse for throwing the towel in which is what appeared to happen with a couple of players.

It is only our second loss in over 20 games and we must turn this into a positive learning experience, the way we react to this defeat when we travel to Exeter next week will show me what the players have taken on board and I am confident they will respond the right way. With players missing through various reasons it gave us the opportunity to introduce a couple of first years who have been performing well for BCOT, Alex Charlick and Rob Teagle joined up with the squad and I am sure in future games they will feature a lot more.