HELLENIC LEAGUE: BARRY Flippance's winner gave Vale a hat-trick of victories over Wootton Bassett at the recreation ground.

The game began badly for Pewsey when they lost defender Alan Blake with an injury in the first minute.

They brought on the up and coming youngster Kevin Montague, who was to give a very impressive performance, being involved with much of the play.

Flippance was fouled just outside the box on 27 minutes, but Bassett keeper Ian Gill had no problem with the poorly taken Tom Ritchie free kick.

Vale took the well-deserved lead on 36 minutes after a spell of pressure on the Bassett goal.

A low cross from Craig Wall into a packed goal area saw Flippance nip in to find a gap in the Bassett defence and poke the ball home.

Bassett came out from the break the stronger team and looking for an equaliser.

But the Pewsey defence held firm with defenders Micky Goodwin, Brian Blake and Martin Churchward, has just returned to the Pewsey side after a spell with neighbours Hungerford Town, having solid games.

Following last week's good performance,Vale goalkeeper Lee Wilson had another good game and again denied the visitors with a great save.

This woke the Vale up and Matty Messenger was unlucky when he saw his header go just wide from a Ritchie corner. Then Wall shot wide after being set up by Flippance.

Montague continued to impress the Vale supporters with some good play and Messenger worked hard to feed his fellow forwards, with only a goal eluding him to crown his performance.

With two minutes to go Bassett were reduced to ten men when they had Mark Vaughan dismissed for his second caution.

The win lifts the Vale into third from bottom and manager Steve Wootton feels his side can keep rising now their confidence has been boosted.

"The win did us all good, now we can go on a run. We've got 13 games left and six of them are against other sides down at the bottom with us. If we can get a result from all of those games then I think we will be okay,'' he said.

Vale were due to play Didcot last night and then travel to Chipping Norton on Saturday.

Wootton's biggest worry is a niggling back injury to Flippance that has dogged him all season. He limped out of the win over Bassett in the second half.

"It has been troubling him for a while and it is a concern,'' he said.

He was considering leaving him out of last night's game to ensure he is fit for Saturday. "We have to be sensible and try and get him fit for the games we need to win,'' said Wootton.

Flippance showed how valuable he is by getting the goal that made the difference against Bassett. It was one of few chances that came his or Vale's way.

"He is a great striker for us. He always seems to be able to put chances away and that made the difference. He's got 20 goals now this season.''

Wootton also hopes to welcome back injury victims Darren Tapper, Darren Waters and Andy Bryan in the next few weeks. "It will be great to have them back, it will give us some more options,'' he said.