Romsey Town played their part in a hugely entertaining game when they took on Team Solent last weekend.

Solent arrived at the Bypass Ground with a quality side riding high in the League, with former Tottenham Hotspur professional Jesse Waller Lassen in their ranks and assistant-managed by Kevin Braybrook, who is currently European head scout for Wolves having previously coached at international level with Northern Ireland.

Romsey were certainly unfazed by what was before them and started extremely brightly and could have lead as early as the second minute when Liam Cooke fed Pedro Carvalho whose shot whistled past the post.

Next it was the turn of the impressive Kadeem Price, who shot over having again been set up by Cooke.

At the back Rikki Richardson and Lewis Oliver, who was making his Wessex League debut for the club after impressing in the development squad, were in superb form to keep the lively forward line of Solent to shots from distance. Midway through the first half, a sickening clash of heads between Town’s Adam Shipp and Solent’s Sam Byles resulted in Byles requiring hospital attention for a fractured eye socket.

For a brief period the game went through a lull as both sets of players appeared to be affected by the injury to Byle,s but as the half drew to its conclusion it was Town that went closest again to scoring when Price and then Josh Ramsey had efforts saved.

The second half saw more of the same entertainment with both teams playing open attractive football which produced many moments of exceptional quality.

However it was a basic offside decision that wasn’t given that enabled Team Solent to take the lead with a fairly comfortable tap-in from close range at the far post, whilst Town were looking at the linesman in vain.

The decision seemed to galvanise Town, who came back into the game strongly and indeed drew level within eight minutes.

A superb seven-man move that started from Town keeper George Passingham and went from back to front with crisp one touch passing saw Carvalho fire home after Solent keeper had thwarted Price’s volley. It was certainly a goal well appreciated by the spectators and one fully deserved by Romsey.

With just ten minutes remaining and Town pushing for the winner, Solent countered and were awarded a penalty when Solent’s Lasssen tempted Carvalho into a tackle following a neat bit of skill in the box. Lassen stepped up to take the penalty himself and sent Passingham the wrong way to regain the lead.

With just minutes remaining Dom Collicott and Oliver Bailey both had good chances to salvage a point but in the end it was Team Solent that took all three.

Looking back on the game, head coach James Phillips remarked “I was extremely pleased with how we played throughout the match.

We had a game plan and a positive one at that and we so nearly executed it fully. We knew it would be tough as Solent is a team packed with outstanding individuals and to go down to a late penalty was frustrating.

“The returns of Rikki Richardson and Liam Cooke certainly gave us a boost and young Lewis Oliver at centre back should be extremely pleased with his performance today but overall I’m very proud of the lads and know that with the quality we have ourselves, we’ll soon be picking up victories to match our performances.”