Basingstoke 2 - 1 Purfleet

We had another disappointing result on our travels as last Saturday we went 2-1 down at Basingstoke which means we have now taken just a single point from our last six away games. Both sides could have taken the lead within the first two minutes. Right from the kick off a cross from Jon Keeling found Danny Lye, making his debut in our colours, but the ball seemed to arrive on his wrong foot and the chance went begging. Almost immediately Neville Roach broke away on the left hand side, cut in and his shot was just wide of the right hand post. On ten minutes the home side did take the lead.

It was that man Roach again, out pacing Dean Chandler to hit a shot that beat Alex O'Reilly's outstretched dive to hit the left hand post and rebound into the net. A few minutes later we almost equalised. A cross from the left by Kris Lee found Keeling who seemed to take too much time before deciding to shoot and when he did Chad Harpur in the home goal made a good save. In the 25th minute Basingstoke went two up. Kevin Gibbens was adjudged to have been brought down in the area and the referee immediately pointed to the spot. Just before this incident it seemed as though a free kick should have gone our way. But it was not to be and Craig McAllister duly despatched home the spot kick.

Just before half time we did have a chance to get back in the game when Lee Allan played a through ball to Kris
Lee but his shot was just wide of the right hand post. We had much the better of the second half but our goal scoring opportunities were few. Fifteen minutes from time we did putt a goal back. Mark Goodfellow played the ball down the left to Keeling. Keeling's run took him down to the bye line and his cross was met by Tresor Kandol to score from close range.

We pressed forward for the final fifteen minutes but the Basingstoke defence held out to give us another blank day.