Royal Wootton Bassett Town were looking to create history and win two Women’s FA Cup matches in the same season for the first time. They welcomed there South West Women’s Prem (tier 5) rivals Torquay United.
Bassett immediately started the stronger with Hayley Huckin making a superb run on the left and teed up Lauren Kayll who sent her shot whistling over the bar.
Maddy Elliott then played in Huckin who’s shot went wide and another good move by Kayll was well defended.
The home team’s early dominance paid off on the twenty-minute mark with two quick goals from long shots. Firstly from Huckin in front of goal and then a peach of a goal from wide left at a tight angle by Elliott which went in off the post to put Bassett 2-0 up.
Torquay thought they would copy Bassett’s shoot on sight policy but the shot was well caught by Abi Footner in the home teams goal. Her opposite number, Leanne Robbins, was flying all around her penalty area trying to stop a rampant Bassett and made two good saves against Huckin.
It wasn’t to be third time lucky as Huckin, one of last season’s goalscoring heroes, grabbed her second of the afternoon to put Bassett 3-0 up on 34 minutes.
Five minutes later the player I sponsor, Lisa Coe, got her first goal of the season as she lurked at the near post for a Laura Jefferies corner and after the ensuing melee in the box, she stabbed the ball into the net to put Bassett 4-0 up at half time.
The misery continued for Torquay in second half who were not able to deal with Bassett’s quick passing and movement as Elliott scored her second from a Huckin pass on 53 minutes.
On the hour mark Kayll played in Grace Eagles who scored to make it half a dozen for Bassett. Torquay thought they’d got a consolation goal as they hit the post but the loose ball was smothered by Footner.
Bassett didn’t take there foot off the gas and on 83 minutes Hannah Gulliver scored with a brilliant solo effort and five minutes later the flamed haired defender Gulliver who is on fire in the goalscoring charts scored her sixth goal of the season and Bassett’s eighth and final goal by rounding the keeper.
A ‘Super 8’ performance by Bassett as they move into the next round of the FA Cup to play Portishead away, coincidentally the exact fixture they were supposed to be playing in the league that day. Before that they host league favourites, Callington Town, who will not relish travelling to a team who has scored 24 goals in 4 competitive games this season and has yet to concede a goal.
After the game I caught up with joint Bassett manager Johnny House to discuss the game. He said, “We got off to a decent start. We slightly tweaked our our system, we want to be a team that keep the ball a little bit more. I thought we found that blend quite well for the first half in terms of of when do we keep it and when do we force it a little bit more and find those cutting edge passes. The second half became a little bit stretched with injuries and tiredness. We kept solid and tried to do the right things to keep us in good stead for the rest of the season.”
When asked about his side’s long shots House said “We gave the players that freedom in the final third that if they can shoot & if they can score they should be able to back themselves but it’s not a specific tactic to shoot from range.” and on the next round of the cup, “We are happy to be in the next round & well go into any game with confidence no matter who its against.”
