Basingstoke Town v Merthyr Town
3 October 2023
Kick Off:
19:45
1-3
Result:
Winklebury Football Complex Winklebury Way Basingstoke RG23 8BF
Match Report:
Even with five players missing and a patched up side that travelled to Winkelbury, it was a lively start from the Martyrs with both Tom Handley and Olly Mehew having two early attempts. Despite some early pressure from the visitors it was Basingstoke who opened the scoring after 32 minutes through Bradley Wilson.
Will Fuller was called into action a few minutes before the interval to make a crucial save that ensured there was no addition to the score prior to half time.
A double substitution after an hour's play saw the introduction of Gethyn Hill and Lewys Twamley, who replaced Tom Hillman and Tom Stokes. Within ten minutes the Basingstoke resistance was ended as Mehew fed Handley to hit a powerful effort that found the bottom corner.
With 16 minutes remaining Mehew hit the crossbar prior to Frazer Thomas cutting inside to put the Martyrs in front with a left footed finish into the top corner. With the lead secured it was just a case of running down the clock to see out the victory, until Ricardo Rees had other ideas in the fourth minute of added time to unleash a wonderful strike to put the icing on the cake to maintain the 100% away league record.