Two minutes of madness costs Kingfishers

Thatcham Town’s three match winning run came to an end on Monday as defensive mistakes proved costly in a 2-0 defeat to Basingstoke.

The Kingfishers crossed the Berkshire border to Hampshire in confident mood, having won three on the bounce for the first time since Danny Robinson's tenure and risen to 14th in the Isthmian League South Central table.

Fourth placed Basingstoke promised to provide a stern test for Yashwa Romeo’s side, who face a frenetic schedule in January featuring five away games and including a trip to Channel Islanders Guernsey on Sunday.

However Thatcham were combative and competitive, making life difficult for a Basingstoke side that wanted to get the ball down and make the most of their artificial surface.

After a positive first half, the Kingfishers shot themselves in the foot in the 47th minute when goalkeeper Toby Fisher passed the ball straight to George Reid who rolled the ball into an empty net to make it 1-0.

It was 2-0 two minutes later when Bradley Wilson beat Fisher with a smart finish from the edge of the box and, with the Kingfishers seemingly shellshocked, the points were staying in Hampshire.

Boss Yashwa Romeo was frustrated with the manner of his side's defeat but was nevertheless upbeat about the Kingfishers recent upturn in form.

"Mistakes can happen, but our mistakes were very much of our own making," he said.

"We made two mistakes before Toby's mistake, we shouldn't have been in that position.

"We had a wobbly couple of minutes and that's cost us, but there's still a really positive feeling in the squad.

"I think we've improved a lot in the last six weeks and we've got the results to match, we're positive.

"We've got a lot of travelling this month but we're confident we can go and get three points at Guernsey."