Do You Woot?!-ton Bassett Town (FM10)

[Izulde]

Level 10 Side Wootton Bassett Town Upsets Level 9 Squad Maltby Main 3-0 In FA Cup First Round Qualifying
Bassett gets first win of Izulde Jestor's tenure

They've been together for just five games and most even less than that.

But despite playing only two friendlies and dropping their Hellenic League Division I West opener 0-1, Izulde Jestor's Wootton Bassett Town outfit not only pulled off a miracle 1-1 draw on the road in FA Cup First Round Qualifying, thanks to a penalty kick by 25 year old midfielder Russell Griffiths and then stunned Maltby 3-0 on the Bassett home pitch to miraculously move on to FA Cup Second Round Qualifying, confounding all the pundits who didn't give Jestor's side a shot.

30 year old striker Colin Carr-Lawton, who'd struggled since coming to Wootton, redeemed his poor prior showings with a beautiful header for the game's first goal at the 8 minute mark. 26 year old striker Tony Muggleton added an insurance goal at minute 31 and 26 year old vice captain and utility attacking midfielder Andrew Wright added a 20 yard scorcher in the 70th minute after coming in at the half.

The dazzling upset put $1,200 in amateur side Bassett Town's purse and proved to the 145 fans in attendance that this team might well be able to score the goals this season, despite being a 5,000-1 longshot to get promoted to Level 9 this year.

With that in mind, here's a quick look at the starting 11 on this historic day.

GK
Richard Brandon (24)
Exceptional aerial ability with good determination and positioning for this level. Highly influential and most often serves as captain, as the team's official captain and vice-captain are rotation players. Has done fairly well so far in the young season.
(16 Aerial Ability, 12 Determination, 10 Positioning)

[b]Defense
DR Dave Westwood (23)
Started both FA Cup games against Maltby Main and acquitted himself fairly well overall. Pretty good player for this level and while not likely to be an automatic first team selection, he's certainly in the mix, especially thanks to his great teamwork and work ethic and his status as one of the team's best free kickers.
(12 Teamwork, 11 Work Ethic, 8 Free Kicks, 11 Jumping, 6 Tackling, 7 Technique)

DL Daniel Szczukiewicz (28)
The lone non-Englishman on the squad, his technical attributes are abysmal, but he's the most physically gifted player on the backline, maybe the whole squad, as his only physical stat below 10 is his jumping, which is scouted at 4. The Pole will face stiff challenges to keep his starting spot, but at this level, physical prowess counts for a lot. One of the players brought in by Jestor.

DC Adam Smallman (25)
This Jestor import doesn't have any flair to speak of, but he's a solid all-around player with no real strengths and no real weaknesses. He's arguably the most complete player on the backline right now and should be a fixture there for the forseeable future.

DC Tom McGlashan (22)
Out of this world bravery, teamwork and determination for this level (15, 15, 17). He's also the most on-form player right now, averaging 7.27 rating. Doesn't have standout technical or physical skills, but his mental attributes make him a huge overachiever.

Midfield
MR Alex Griffiths (24)
Made a beautiful pass to Carr-Lawton to set up the header. Perhaps the single best physical specimen on the entire team, even more so than Zukie, and like the Polish defender, he doesn't have much else to write home about.

ML Craig Baker (26)
Outspoken, volatile and an absolute nightmare in the technical sense. But he has flair in spades (13) and that type of sparkly magical quality, along with his physical prowess, had many considering him the team's best player before the season began and before Jestor started grabbing new players.

MC Russell Griffiths (25)
His penalty kicking ability (14), by far tops on the team and his 13 teamwork rating will keep him on the pitch even though he has absolutely nothing else to offer besides that. Oh, and his 7.1 average rating shows that he might be a much better player than he's scouted to be. Arguably Jestor's favorite of the original Wooters.

MC Colin Rose (37)
Why did Jestor bring in a 37 year old? Because the old man's one of the most technically sound players on the team and his mental attributes are the very definition of savvy and crafty veteran. Likely a year one rental, he hopes to get into scouting after he retires. If he's good enough, he might very well get to stay with the club.

Strikers
ST Colin Carr-Lawton (30)
Best finisher on the club (10) and only brought in because every other striker Jestor tried to land went elsewhere. Good flair and teamwork and his ridiculous natural fitness (17) hopefully predicts that he'll be a useful player for some number of years to come. Had a terrible pair of first games that drew his new manager's ire and he was in danger of losing his starting spot until scoring in tonight's game.

There's still a lot of work to be done and because this is an amateur side, any of their players or any of the new staff Jestor brought in could sign elsewhere at any given moment. No guaranteed contracts here; it's just expenses and no salary for anyone, not even the manager.

But for now, at least, this club, which has been in existence since 1882, can relish this historic upset.

[SirFozzie]

Gotcha! Mwhahahahahahahaa!

[Izulde]

Originally Posted by SirFozzie

Gotcha! Mwhahahahahahahaa!

Yeah, yeah. Damn you. Seriously, though, fantastic find. It's like playing the D-Leagues in DDSPB

[Izulde]

Goals Hard To Come By For Wootton Bassett Town

The miracle upset in the first qualifying round of the FA Cup and a 2nd place position in league play after four games marked the high points of the half-season for Wootton Bassett Town. It's been all downhill since then.

Wootton's primary trouble has been goal scoring, as they've gone 14 straight games without a non-penalty kick goal. It's now December 19th and the last time Bassett scored a goal that wasn't a PK was all the way back on September 9th, when midfielder Andrew Hutchinson scored the gamewinner in a 1-0 victory over Letcome. Since September 9th, Wootton's gone an abysmal 2 wins - 8 losses - 4 draws, with only a stellar backline and terrific penalty kicking by Russell Griffiths saving them from a worse fate.

In 15 league games, they've scored just 7 goals and their 5 wins - 7 losses - 4 draws have them in 11th place, with 19 points to their credit. Different assemblies of strikers have been tried, but so far, nothing's seemed to work. Different tactics have been tried as well, also with no results. It's a puzzling situation and manager Izulde Jestor has been at a loss as to what to do.

Wootton's also lost every single cup match on the year, save for that FA Cup upset and the fans are growing increasingly frustrated with the team's offensive futility. Worse yet, midfielder Nicky Thompson, the team's most recent acquisition and expected playmaker, twisted his knee and will be out 3 weeks.

It's dismal times at Gerard Buxton Sports Ground, with no ray of sunshine in sight.