Basingstoke Town 1-2 Poole Town – Match Report

In quite extraordinary fashion, Poole Town secured the three points in a 2-1 win against Basingstoke Town with a last-minute winner from Shaquille Gwengwe and Adam Parkes saving a penalty with the last kick of the game.

Joe Lea and Pat Suraci made two changes from the 3-1 win over Hungerford Town last Saturday with Henry Spalding and Corey Jordan returning to the starting eleven.

The match got underway at The Winklebury Football Complex with both sides testing the waters in the early stages.

Despite Basingstoke dominating the majority of the ball in the early stages, it was Poole who opened the scoring after seven minutes with a great ball whipped into the area from Henry Spalding and it found the head of Dan Carr who converted for his first for the club.

Poole went close to a second after 21 minutes through Ik Hill who went for goal from range, but it was well held by Simon Grant in the Basingstoke goal.

Basingstoke grew into the game as the half went on and had a massive chance to level the game after a mistake from Corey Jordan, but the hosts were unable to convert from the edge.

The half came to an end with Poole leading at the break thanks to Carr’s opener.

The second half got underway in similar end-to-end action throughout with both sides looking like they could find the next goal in this game.

A massive chance for Poole on the 57^th minute as Gwengwe was found in behind by Diaz, but he was again denied by Grant.

Poole fans thought their side had found a second through substitute Samuel Ayo Faniyan, but his effort crashed off the woodwork.

Despite the Dolphins going close, it was Basingstoke who did equalise after some nice link up play converted by Joe Grant on the 77^th minute.

On the 82^nd minute, Dan Carr found the back of the net again, this time directly from a corner, but his effort was disallowed for an apparent foul on the goalkeeper.

With the game looking like it was going to end level, there was one last chance for the Dolphins.

Corey Jordan played a superb ball through to Dan Carr who smashed it across the face of goal for Shaquille Gwengwe to tap it home and make it 2-1 on the 90^th minute.

However, Basingstoke weren’t done yet as with seconds left on the clock, the referee pointed to the spot after a foul from Gwengwe and awarded Basingstoke a spot kick and a huge chance to salvage a point.

James Clark stepped up for the hosts, but he was denied from 12 yards by the heroics of Adam Parkes who saved the penalty with the last kick of the game.

The full time whistle was blown with Adam Parkes the hero and ensuring the three points were heading back to Tatnam in a truly incredible game of football.