TIVVY ARCHIVE

Basingstoke Town 6 - 2 Tiverton Town

The last time Tiverton Town shipped in six goals in a competitive match was thirteen years ago to the weekend when they went down 6-1 at home to Chesham United  No one at the Camrose Stadium expected the score-line to match the Chesham game – a freak scoreline in itself – but the end result was no more than a rampant Basingstoke team deserved.

Tivvy’s problems away from home seem to stem from opposition who have two pacey wingers who pen in the wing backs and cutting off Tiverton’s supply stream to the front men. Saturday saw two pacey wingers for Basingstoke in Sam Smart and Ashleigh Artwell do just that. Tivvy started with their usual 3-5-2 formation with Ben Mammola, Tom Gardner and Jamie Price in front of Martin Rice. The wing backs were Callum Hall and Nick Hurst. The midfield three was made up of River Allen making his first away appearance, Mike Landricombe and Jamie Short. Up front was Levi Landricombe along with Jared Lewington.

Early pressure saw Basingstoke have the all the chances and in the ninth minute Sam Argent turned Jamie Price and drove into the box. Martin Rice came out of his goal, but clattered Argent and the ref Simon Wales had no hesitation in pointing to the spot and booking Rice. Argent dispatched his first of the afternoon past Rice into the bottom left hand corner. Both Wingers were having a field day and it took last ditch tackles by Jamie Price, Ben Mammola and Tom Gardener to prevent the hosts adding to the score line in the first half. Tiverton meanwhile were getting overrun in Midfield and registered no shots on goal in the entire first half. Half time came at the right time for Tivvy as the hosts looked like they could increase the lead at any time.

The second half started in the same fashion with Basingstoke on the offensive. On 49 minutes Mike Landricombe was adjudged to have tripped Sam Argent in the box. It looked harsh from my position in the press box, but the referee had no hesitation in giving it. Argent stepped up again and beat Rice for the second time low to his left. Things went from bad to worse five minutes later when a misplaced pass across the pitch from Ben Mammola was cut out by Sam Smart who fed Sam Argent who made no mistake past Martin Rice for his hattrick. Tivvy 3-0 down then reverted to a 4-4-2 formation to try and rescue the game. This proved a false dawn as on 68 minutes a lovely curling free kick from George Bennett was met by that man Argent with a free header to again powerfully beat Rice.

Smart who had been terrorising Tivvy along with fellow winger Artwell and the former jinked into the Tivvy box and squared to Argent for his fifth goal of the game on 74 minutes. Previously Argent had scored five goals away to Dunstable Town and this was another master class of finishing. Four minutes later Tiverton fans at least had something to cheer as Jared Lewington notched his second league goal when he bunded the ball home from a River Allen corner. Basingstoke extinguished any thoughts of a comeback though when Ashleigh Artwell on dual registration with Wealdstone took control of the ball just inside Tivvy’s half and ran past the visitor’s challenges, squared the ball back to George Bennett who curled a sumptuous shot past Martin Rice to give Basingstoke their sixth goal on 81 Minutes. Tivvy did however manage to pull a further goal back from Jared Lewington in the dying embers of the match but it was too little to late for the Devon side.

No doubt there was a lot of soul searching after this latest heavy defeat on the road and Tivvy must tighten up on all aspects of their game. A change of formation for away games must come under consideration as well as somehow trying to create chances at the other end of the pitch. Two many bad days at the office away from home are occurring and the management team have some work to eradicate the errors that keep on happening. We have to remember though Tivvy are still having a fantastic season, but it is in danger of disappointingly petering out.

Tiverton Town: Martin Rice, Nick Hurst (Jordan Rogers), Callum Hall (Tom Bath), Jamie Price, Ben Mammola, Tom Gardner, Jamie Short, River Allen, Jared Lewington, Levi Landricombe, Michael Landricombe
Goals Jared Lewington 2

Attendance: 318