Swindon 3rds 1 - 4 Wootton Bassett A

Swindon were host today to local side (Royal) Wootton Bassett. Swindon were looking to stop their losing streak and with the return of Dec Cullen, Callum Bird, Jordan McKenzie and Mark Young, there was a great opportunity for the home side to take maximum points from the game. Today also saw the return of David Miles who had a weekend away from university and his uni hockey team. A great move by Dave opting to play against his old club, ensuring the 5 - 0 walkover and three points for Swindon... Cheers Dave!

On a more serious note, the game began with both teams fairly evenly matched. Roughly half way through the first half, Bassett broke the deadlock with an attacker at the top of the D drifting to the right slightly releasing a shot past the diving Swindon keeper Tom Kerslake's stick, who had majorly overcompensated with his angles.

Swindon soon levelled with Alex Hynes breaking down the play and running a fair bit of the pitch on his own before passing it on to Mark who then laid it up for Alex Hynes to put home to the keepers right.

The second half got under way with Bassett getting out of the traps quicker. Not to long after the whistle, Bassett struck again with a goal which was a carbon copy of their first. Once again an attacker at the top of the D drifted to the right, striking the ball past the diving Swindon keeper's stick, who had majorly overcompensated with his angles again.

Swindon still battled on and earned themselves a few short corners, all of which cam with no reward. Bassett were rewarded for their efforts too, earning a short corner. The ball was injected, slipped left and a the straight strike which followed was logged by Tom Kerslake. The rebound though fell to another Bassett attacker which was nudged away by Will Porter but resulted in the ball being picked up by another Bassett attacker who put it over the stranded Swindon keeper.

The final goal of the game was a groundhog day moment from last weeks against west wilts for Tom kerslake. The shot came in, hitting the left post and rebounding off the back of the shoulder of the committed Swindon keeper. Will Porter made a desperate effort to get the ball away, which he did, but the was was deemed already to have crossed the line, earning Tom his second goal in two games.

Today was a mixed bag for the team. We had oodles of talent on our side but we failed to utilise it and in the end became lazy. We must keep out heads in the game from the start to the finish, especially when it comes to us playing next week!