Nottingham hit with a Bassetlaw one-two

SCHOOLS FOOTBALL

Bassetlaw Boys successful season continued when they added the County Five-a-side Championship to the Midland Counties Seven-a-side Championship they won last month.

In a straight battle with the reigning champions City of Nottingham, the Bassetlaw ‘A’ squad set off in fine style against Nottingham ‘B’ with Jay Smith, Jack Wilson and Luke Smith scoring at will although one or two lapses in defence produced a 5-3 final winning total.

The meeting of the two ‘A’ squads ended 1-1 with Ryan Dixon on target for Bassetlaw.

Nottingham ‘A’ then annihilated their ‘B’ squad 8-0, suggesting that if goal difference was to be a major factor at the final countdown those goals would put them in a strong position.

This was the signal for Bassetlaw ‘B’ to turn on their power with a Regan Watkinson hat-trick and further goals from Liam Frost and Dixon saw them cruise to a 5-1 defeat over their own ‘A’ squad.

Nottingham had put all their hopes on their much stronger ‘A’ team whereas Bassetlaw manager, Alan Pressley had fielded two equally strong squads enabling Bassetlaw to close the goal difference gap when they also walloped Nottingham ‘B’ 7-0 with goals this time flowing from Regan Watkinson (4), Dixon (2) and Kieron Hooley.

Mathematicians began to circulate that a narrow defeat for the Bassetlaw ‘A’ squad against Nottingham ‘A’ would still give the title to Bassetlaw ‘B’ but the Bassetlaw ‘A’ boys treated this statistic contempt and produced their best performance of the night.

Four goals from Jay Smith and a fifth from Luke Smith overwhelmed Nottingham and not only gave the title to Bassetlaw ‘B’ but made it a one and two as they took the runners-up spot themselves.

Bassetlaw now meet Scarborough Boys at Harworth in two week’s time before travelling to the Chelsea Training ground for the National Seven-a-side Finals.

It has now been announced that Bassetlaw’s opponents in the National Finals will be Redcar and Cleveland, Chester, Northampton, Plymouth, Poole and East Dorset, Barking and Dagenham and Croydon.