Barnes 43 pts v Basingstoke 3 pts , March 8th 2008
Report by courtesy of Basingstoke Gazette.

Stoke suffered another defeat away to Barnes but the score line does not reflect the effort the team put in. It was only the final quarter, where the home side ran in 4 tries, that Stoke did not have parity. With Civil Service beating Stortford it now means that Stoke slip to second bottom. In a very competitive opening Barnes were awarded a penalty on 5 minutes which fell just short. Stoke responded with a penalty of their own on 15 which Goodall converted for a 3-0 lead. The home side responded almost immediately when a kick ahead was dropped by a Stoke player just outside the 22 metre line and after a kick ahead from a Barnes player was touched down in the dead ball area by a Stoke player, and the ref gave a 5 metre scrum, not a 22 metre drop out and a chance for Stoke to clear their lines. As a result the home side kept the pressure on and created space to score out wide and a 5-3 lead. Stoke then had a good spell in their opponents 22 but were unable to break the home sides defence and came away with nothing having giving away turnovers near the line. Barnes eventually relieved pressure to move into Stoke's 22, where they created space on the blind side for a gap to appear and a converted try to extend their lead to 12-3. Stoke again came back and had numerous visits to the Barne's 22 but were not able to convert pressure into points and arrived at half time 12-3 down.

With the wind at their backs in the second half Stoke paid an early visit into their opponents 22 and were rewarded with a penalty on 42 minutes and a Barnes player yellow carded for not rolling away, not the first time that the said player had infringed. Unfortunately Stoke did not convert the kick at goal, but were now playing against 14 men. However it was not the visitors that capitalised on the one man advantage but the home side responded with a try on 45 minutes running the ball back after a wayward kick from Stoke and Barnes to score a try from their own 22. On the hour mark Buttle made a superb break and after rounding the full back chose to take on the covering winger rather than go for the line and was stopped short with the home side then clearing their lines. Stoke continued to play in a competitive manner but were undone in the last quarter when they tried to play keep ball rather than at times putting the ball behind their opponent and forcing them to make mistakes. As a result the hosts were able to capitalise on the visitors mistakes. Credit must be given to the home side for turning a 17-3 lead on 65 minutes to a winning margin of 43-3 and the way they exploited Stokes errors. Tries on 65, 70, 75 and 83 minutes with 3 conversions came from missed tackles, turnover ball or basic errors for the home side to run out 43-3 victors. Whilst Stoke might be looking at relegation many of the young players such as Henderson, Scott, Richardson, Buttle and Richards are names for the future the stalwarts such as Appleby, Williams, Lillywhite, Buckland, Young, and Barton along with other non starters today can be the building block for the future.

After, a reflective Dixon added "There were a lot of positives from today and we can build on the last two performances. We need to emphasise on what we can bring in the long term as player development and not on the short term."