Chelmsford City 1 Basingstoke 2 (From Chelmsford Weekly News)

Chelmsford City 1 Basingstoke 2

10:06am Monday 25th January 2010

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HEAD Coach Glenn Pennyfather expressed great disappointment following his side’s slip-up as goals from Mitchell Bryant and David Pratt sent Chelmsford spinning to defeat.

“That was as inept a performance as I’ve seen from us for a long, long while,” was his opening comment after the game as he prepared to bounce back against Staines Town on Monday.

“I thought we’d got out of that, but it’s reared its head again today.

"Sometimes you go on good runs then the mindset changes a little bit from the players.

"The application and desire wasn’t quite there and it’s OK talking about being good players or a good team but you’ve got to prove it.

"We didn’t do that and got what we deserved.”

Just two changes were made to the side which upset Blue Square Premier side Crawley Town in the FA Trophy five days earlier, Marlon Patterson returning to the team in place of Michael Haswell at left-back, while Rob Edmans’ thigh strain paved the way for Smith to return to the team up-front.

Though the first action was near the Chelmsford goal as goalkeeper Ashley Harrison got down to deny Gary Frewen close to an upright.

Frewen again caused a nuisance on 18 minutes with his curling free-kick inches over the crossbar while opportunities in consecutive minutes around the middle of the half maintained City’s limited attacking interest.

Anthony Cook was unsuccessful with an ambitious long-ranger from 30 yards then the ball broke between two visiting defenders, enabling Lewis Smith to sneak in and hammer a yard over Richard Barnard’s crossbar.

Just after the half-hour mark Matthew Lock’s cross from the left found Dave Rainford whose volley was spilled wide by Barnard from ten yards and the City skipper also leapt to head a Ricky Holmes corner over.

After the break it was Basingstoke who re-entered the pitch with the greater purpose, Pratt nicking the ball off a defender then warming the palms of Harrison, who needed to chase his own parry to ensure it was successfully clutched from near the goal line.

The visitors went one better in the 50th minute, Frewen slipping Bryant away who carefully lobbed the advancing Harrison into the net from near the penalty spot.

Cook and Holmes combined to no avail ten minutes later and Rainford fed John Martin to slam well over a few minutes later as the hosts began to emerge. Holmes also sprinted down the left and squared into the goalmouth but tantalisingly out of the reach of Smith.

Ten minutes from the end a foraging run from Cook ended in a powerful snap-shot from Smith, with a goal following seconds later, but at the wrong end for Chelmsford.

Pratt had been involved in a large percentage of Town’s attacking possession and was rewarded when he worked his was through on goal, seeing Harrison only able to touch his prodded effort into the corner of the net for Basingstoke’s second.

Four minutes from the end Steven Clark’s delicate ball for City picked out Smith at the far post to head home, though the real damage had already been done earlier in the fixture.

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