Basingstoke Town will be disappointed after only picking up a point from Bank Holiday Monday’s home game against Hampton & Richmond, which ended in a 2-2 draw.
The visitors made the short trip to the Camrose with just one draw from their opening four games. Delano Sam-Yorke remained out of the side with injury and three changes from the Woking game saw Rob Rice on the bench along with Shaun McAuley who was not fully fit, and Stuart Lake who was not available. In came Nathan Smart, Jidi Ogunbote and Rob Gradwell.
A strong run by Smart at the visiting defence in the second minute ended with a shot that lacked the quality of the initial build up. A couple of minutes later Gradwell found the ever lively David Pratt but his cross into the box evaded everyone. With left back Callum Stewart in the referee’s notebook after nine minutes Pratt was running rings around him with the Hampton player obviously concerned about making any contact with the Town forward.
A rare error in defence by Ross Adams saw the visitors briefly have a three-on-one attack but a hesitant Nathan Collier made a hash of the opportunity and allowed Jay Gasson to clear.
With a quarter of the game gone Matt Warner crossed from the left and Gradwell met the ball, heading just over the bar. Two minutes later Town took the lead when Warner’s corner found Gradwell who should have scored, but his weak effort came out to the edge of the area to Wes Daly who smashed a low left foot shot into the corner of the net.
Town ramped up the pressure with Warner heading over the bar after good work from Tim Sills and Daly. Sills saw his effort saved down low at the post by Rodney Chiweshe after Pratt had pulled the ball back.
As the half drew to a close Hampton began to unsettle the hosts and four minutes from half time were level with a route one goal. The lively Charlie Moon collected the ball from ‘keeper Chiweshe’s kick and one touch took Gasson out of the game leaving him to beat Ashley Bayes one-on-one. The visitor could have gone in leading at half time. In injury time a great pass from former town player Dave Tarpey found Jacob Erskine who knocked the ball past Bayes but Gasson got back to hack off the line.
The first 15 minutes of the second half saw little action but on the hour the home side were rocked when they failed to clear a free kick, a speculative high ball was pumped in and Erskine managed to evade his marker to slot the ball home. Soon after the goal Town made a double substitution with Simon Dunn and McAuley coming on for Warner and Ogunbote.
It was former academy player Dunn who spared the Dragon’s blushes, salvaging a point with just over a quarter of an hour to play, forcing home the ball after the Chiweshe had failed to hold on to a Sills header.
Both sides had half chances as the game drew to a close and Town secured a battling point but really need to start turning these kind of games into all three points. Two tough games stare Town in the face with high flying Dartford the visitors on Saturday, followed by a difficult trip to Kent to face Dover Athletic on September 10.
