Sam Newell and Lewis Rourke gave us a comfortable lead at the break before Nathanial Peters added a third with a penalty midway through the second half.

Strikes from Allyes Bedar and a final minute spot-kick from Justin Fashinga gave the hosts some hope but it was not enough as Josh Law and Wayne Scott’s men moved to 5th in the latest league standings.

Looking to follow on from our FA Youth Cup exploits recently, we started well and began to take control early on with the lively Rory Harrison often the catalyst and within seven minutes he set up two fine opportunities for an early lead.

Firstly, after only 35 seconds, he found Rourke whose shot from an angle arrowed marginally wide but had ‘keeper John Meadows sprawling.

Moments later, Harrison did excellently to cut in from the right and tee up Peters but his effort, whilst accurate, was straight at Meadows who collected with ease before Callum Frogson’s headed yet another Harrison assist wide and it didn’t take long for our dominance to pay dividends.

Instrumental throughout, Harrison’s neat lay-off found Newell who drilled home past Meadows after only 14 minutes with a goal our early possession warranted.

Offering little going forward, the hosts failed to trouble our stubborn rearguard, marshalled superbly by George Sharman, Tobias Rhule, Peters and Frogson and their collective efforts were rewarded at the other end when Rourke volleyed Louis Nicholson’s cross past Meadows just after the half hour to double away advantage.

Just before the break, Newell may have made the half-time talk even easier, but his free kick whistled just over the bar before a rare foray forward saw Bedar deflect an effort wide of Gianni Musson’s goal with the resultant corner harmlessly cleared by Sharman.

The second period began in similar fashion as we looked to add to our two-goal cushion.

Both Peters and Rourke received treatment for innocuous collisions in an otherwise friendly tie but that did little to dampen their intentions when the former’s penalty was calmly rolled past Meadows for a third on the hour after the ‘keeper recklessly hacked down Nicholson.

A host of changes saw Arnold Zimmagstro and Nassa Abdullah enter the fray, however it was the home side who reduced the deficit moments later when Bedar nodded Abubakar Ali’s deep cross past Musson to give his side a chance of an unlikely fightback.

Now on the backfoot, we invited pressure and was almost pulled within one when Bedar’s strike was harshly ruled out for offside before both Abdullah and Zimmagstro had viable shouts for a penalty waved away at the other end.
Musson then had to be at his very best to deny another Bedar effort with five minutes remaining after he initially fumbled a high cross, but he could do nothing to prevent Fashinga added some respectability to the score line when he tucked away a late penalty after Jordan Heywood felled substitute Talib Shabani with the last action of the game.

BASFORD UNITED: Gianni Musson, Tobias Rhule, Jordan Heywood, Nathaniel Peters, Callum Frogson, George Sharman, Rory Harrison, Sam Newell (Issa Gaye 82’), Kiarn Nyemba (Arnold Zimmagstro 67’), Lewis Rourke, Louis Nicholson (Nassa Abdullah 64’)

NEXT UP: Loughborough University U21 (Sat 24 Oct, 12:00)