Southern League Division One South: Bashley FC’s Jamie Johnston scored all four goals against Paulton Rovers

Southern League Division One South

Bashley FC 4

Paulton Rovers FC 1

YOUNG winger Jamie Johnston gave a terrific individual performance, scoring all four goals against Paulton Rovers in Bashley’s best win of the season.

For an hour, the game looked as though one goal might settle it. But Johnston, the former Bournemouth and Eastleigh junior, signed last month from Wimborne, had other ideas.

Bashley had the better of the first half, but without being able to make the breakthrough. However, Paulton should have been alerted to the danger ahead because twice in the first 25 minutes, Johnston brought the best out of keeper Frankie Phillips.

It was 38 minutes before Paulton produced a shot worthy of the name, with Jamarni Langlais hitting one through a crowd of players, but the shot went straight at the keeper, and Ross Casey collected it easily.

The hour mark arrived, and just as the nerves were starting to jangle, captain Brad Morris, back at his best after a season punctuated by injury, played a huge cross-field pass from right to left, landing perfectly at the feet of Johnston, who shimmied past a series of challenges before smashing it out of the keeper’s reach.

Four minutes later, it was almost a carbon copy. This time, Brett Williams, newly on as a sub, clipped it high over the defensive line for Johnston to run in and hit an identical shot to his earlier one.

Two minutes later, there was a temporary setback when 2-0 suddenly became 2-1; Bash perhaps caught up in the moment of opening what had seemed like a decisive gap.

For ten minutes, the thought of defending a slender lead for half an hour did not seem ideal, but Johnston came to the rescue with the best goal of the lot.

Morris again played the ball over the back line for the youngster to run onto, and this time, he didn’t even let it hit the ground, smacking it on the volley past the helpless keeper.

Casey had to deal with a promising header from Josh Crispin, and Langlais pinged one just over, but the visitors fizzled out, the final indignity being a fourth superb goal by Johnston.

He collected the ball 40 yards out, put his head down, and weaved his way past a couple of challenges before unleashing an unstoppable drive from 25 yards.

To Paulton’s relief, he was immediately substituted, his afternoon’s work more than done. He left to a huge and well-deserved ovation from the crowd of 357.

Bashley faces a spell of six home games out of the next seven, with Malvern next up this Saturday at 3pm.

Bashley: R. Casey, D. Thompson, S. Steel, A. Rolls, J. Webber, S. Wright, B. Morris, L. Ross, J. Johnston, L. Delaney, M. Wilcock. Subs: E. Hodge, C. Whiteley, B. Williams, C. Baughan, C. Wooding.