Walton and Hersham end three year wait for win at Basingstoke

Basingstoke Town fell to a 3-0 defeat to Walton and Herhsham, as the Swans went seven points clear at the top of the Southern League Premier South.

Walton and Hersham’s last win at the Winklebury sports complex came in 2022 after a near miss two years ago they got over the hump this time around.

In a first half with not many clear cut chances, it would be the away side who broke the deadlock, just after the midway point with Johl Powell being put through on goal and slotting it past Joel Halliday in the Basingstoke goal to send the Swans fans into raptures.

Things would get even better for them as they would soon double their lead with just over 20 minutes left, with D’Andre Brown tripping up Jack Wood after beating his man and cutting inside, it would be Dawid Rogalski who stepped up and send Halliday the wrong way to give Walton and Hersham a 2-0 lead, for his 13th of the season.

Basingstoke’s chances of staging a late comeback would never get going as Marcus Johnson-Schuster would be given a second yellow for a reckless attempt to tackle Anis Nuur, but luckily not making contact with the Midfielder.

Walton and Hersham’s day would get even better as Jack Wood would pick-pocket James Clark on the halfway line and race away before dummying twice and firing low to send the Swans’ fans home happy and ensure they would end their away hoodoo over Basingstoke.

Basingstoke Manager Daniel Brownley, described his teams performance as “a bit toothless”, “the final ball in the first half was a bit disappointing, but overall wasn’t a bad performance”.

When referring to how his side would prepare for their next match he said: “It’s a bit difficult to plan for two different teams and putting it into place.

“If you take away the individual errors, we weren’t that far off.”