Match report: Bashley FC seal 1-1 Southern League Division One South draw with promotion-chasing Mousehole FC

It’s not very often that you can put down a mere draw as one of the season’s best performances – but Bashley’s 1-1 draw with Mousehole on Saturday qualified for that accolade.

Bashley had not won in six games – with a poor result against bottom-side Cinderford Town – but they took all three points against in-form, third-placed promotion-chasing Mousehole.

Neither side found a way through until the 86th minute when Hayden Turner put the hosts in the lead. However, the lead lasted just two minutes, thanks to a leveller from Conor Whiteley.

There were very few chances at either end in the first 45. Each side had a decent penalty appeal turned down, but the wind was the master for most of the time.

The best chances of the half fell to Mousehole. Mack Allan got the slightest of fingertips to Hayden Turner’s pot-shot after the man they call locally ‘The Rifleman’ pulled the trigger after cutting in from the right.

Turner was one man who eluded Bash more than any other, and moments before half-time it took a superbly-timed tackle by Mitch Speechley-Price to nick the ball off Turner’s toes.

Speechley-Price has been a defensive revelation when playing as an emergency cover this season, and he was again leading by example here.

Immediately in the second half, Bash thought they might have had a penalty – Scott Bungay was brought down heavily inside the area – before the game settled into its previous pattern of alternate attacks, with neither side looking threatening.

Bashley thought they were about to win it when Connor Bent popped up perfectly placed on the end of a slick move with just the keeper to beat. However, Chenoweth stuck out enough of a leg to deflect the shot away to safety.

With four minutes left, a freak bounce and a possible foul on Lewis Ross 30 yards from goal enabled Turner to go scooting through the middle unchallenged to steer his shot past the advancing Mack Allan.

With some in the Bashley faithful thinking it was all over, Whiteley picked the ball up on the left side of the penalty area. He skipped to his right past one challenge, a second and then a third before firing hard and low, right-footed, from 20 yards to the keeper’s right to seal the draw.

Bash now have a chance to put on a show for a home crowd against Cribbs in the next match at the Veho Community Stadium on Saturday.

Bashley: M. Allan, J. Bertie, D. Walster, T. Edmondson, S. Bungay, L. Waterfield, C. Whiteley, L. Ross, M. Speechley-Price, J. Power, C. Dunesby-Bent. Sub: K. Skoczen, J. Arnold, L. Laird, B. Williams.