Stratton Youth FC round-up

Stratton Youth U17s 3

Royal Wootton Bassett U17s 2

HOLIDAYS and illness stripped the Stratton Under-17s of several key players but they defied expectations by earning a hard-fought win against Wootton Bassett with a bare 11 players.

It didn’t look promising when Bassett took the lead in the fifth minute as poor marking allowed them a free run down the left and the ball was played into James Russell on the edge of the box who fired past Meichal Wright.

Stratton then looked the more dangerous, hitting the woodwork twice before Sam Brewster struck a perfect diagonal ball for Jethro Kingsley to meet on the run and bury the equaliser.

However, the visitors went ahead again after 30 minutes with Russell scoring his second via an unstoppable shot to the bottom corner.

The second half began fairly evenly but on the hour mark the ball found its way to Sam Brewster on the left and he unexpectedly lofted the ball from distance over the goalkeeper to draw Stratton level again.

Soon afterwards Stratton forced a corner that James Thomas whipped in to the near post and Jack Sheridan reacted quickest to flick a header into the net to give Stratton the lead for the first time.

As the game went in to the final quarter the play became more stretched but Stratton's defence of Tom Chisholm, Charlie Hill, Mike McCarten and Tom Price remained solid and the whole team continued working right to the end as Stratton held on to win 3-2