Match Report by Karl Hills
Photography by Steve Gridley
Basingstoke Town were back in RG23 on Saturday afternoon, as they welcomed play-off hopefuls Havant & Waterlooville to the Winklebury Football Complex.
Unfortunately for ‘Stoke, a disastrous second half followed a strong first half – despite falling behind early on.
Ryan Seager (4) opened the scoring for the visitors, and they took that lead into the break – but it was the second 45 that saw the afternoon fall apart for the hosts. Two red cards for Simon Grant and skipper Billy Upton, alongside Jack Ball having to take the gloves after Grant was sent off, turned the game into more of a training game for both sides. Harvey Bradbury converted the penalty following Grant’s red card (50) and Keane Anderson completed the victory for the visitors with a wonder strike from 30 yards (61).
‘Stoke got the game underway, attacking the railway end, and spent the first couple of minutes of the game dominating the ball in the visitors’ half, but unable to fashion a chance.
When the visitors got the ball forward for the first time, they took the lead. A free-kick deep in the Havant half was lofted forward by goalkeeper Ben Dudzinski and flicked on by Bradbury into the path of Seager. There seemed to be a moment of confusion between Grant and Upton about who was going to go for the ball. Grant came out to meet Seager. But when he did get there, the ball bounced off him, then hit Seager before the ball fell kindly for the striker, who put the ball into the empty net. (0-1)
The home side didn’t allow the early goal to unsettle them and their first shot of the game from Robbie Gallagher was blocked, after some neat play between Gallagher, Jaden Brissett and Sam Deadfield. ‘Stoke had the next effort on goal, as Gallagher cut in from the left, but he fired his effort from range over the bar.
‘Stoke had the majority of the ball in the early stages, despite the early goal, and the away side didn’t have another sighter of goal until the 20-minute mark, as a bouncing ball fell to Seager, whose effort was deflected wide for a corner – which launched a ‘Stoke counterattack, with Brissett getting away down the left side and firing a low ball across the Havant penalty area to Liam Ferdinand, whose shot was blocked by the defender.
Heading into the last 5 minutes of the half, Ferdinand fashioned room for another shot, but the effort took a slight deflection and was comfortably collected by Dudzinski in the opposing net.
On the stroke of half-time, the visitors nearly doubled their lead. Another long free-kick from Dudzinski found the head of Brendan Wilson, who nodded it through to Bradbury, only for Grant to save his effort and the ball rolled out for a corner. The resulting corner ended with a shot from the edge of the area that cleared the bar and that was that for the first half.
HT Basingstoke Town 0 – 1 Havant & Waterlooville
The second half got underway in completely different conditions to that of the first half and with it brought a controversial decision by the officials to award the visitors a penalty just 90 seconds after the restart. After a bit of head tennis, a loose ball is sent from the left side into the ‘Stoke penalty area and Grant slid out to collect and gathered comfortably. However, he was adjudged to have caught the attacker challenging for the ball and the officials awarded a spot-kick and then deemed the challenge to be dangerous and contentiously sent off the ‘Stoke stopper.
Defender Jack Ball was sent on and donned the gloves, with his first task to face the spot kick. Bradbury stepped up and, despite Ball guessing the right way, found the bottom corner of the net. (0-2).
Then, just 90 seconds after the penalty was converted, ‘Stoke found themselves down to nine men, when skipper Upton was adjudged to have elbowed a Havant & Waterlooville player off the ball, which the linesman saw and made the referee aware, and resulted in a straight red card for the ‘Stoke number six.
With the hosts now down to nine men, the match went from competitive to effectively an attack vs defence training session – and 15 minutes in the second half, and ten minutes after the second red card, Havant had their third. The visitors worked the ball from right to left, with Harvey Laidlaw playing the ball to Keane Anderson. Anderson took aim from approximately 30 yards and let fly – kissing the crossbar and post on the way in and sealing the game for the away side. Not even a full-time keeper would have stopped that effort. (0-3)
Down to nine men, the hosts defended valiantly to keep the scoreline at 3-0, including a clearance off the line and a great point black save by Ball in the 75th minute.
Outside of this, there were no further clear-cut chances for either side and the game finished 3-0 to the visitors.
FT Basingstoke Town 0 – 3 Havant & Waterlooville