WHAT a difference a week makes. Last Saturday, Royal Wootton Bassett were sifting through the rubble of a 7-1 defeat, this afternoon they were celebrating a 3-0 success over Oxford City Nomads.

The Gerrard Buxton Sports Ground side have been one of the Premier Division’s most inconsistent teams this term.

At Ardley United last weekend, manager Paul Braithwaite was lost for words so much so, all he wanted today was a reaction, if that came with a victory all the better.

After a scrappy first half, where the best chance on the opening 45 minutes fell to Dale Richards, Bassett upped the tempo and were quickly into their stride in the second period.

A lovely ball over the top of the Nomads defence was brilliantly controlled by Richards and he squared to leading scorer Steve Robertson and he made no mistake in giving the hosts the lead with 47 minutes on the clock.

The visitors came close to levelling the scores 11 minutes later when Amer Awady played in a cross for Louis Joyce, but Nathan Hawkins threw his body in the way to make the block.

Bassett doubled their advantage on 69 minutes when Harvey Scholes went through one-on-one with Nomads’ keeper Christian Lawrence, but the visiting stopper made a good save.

However, the ball fell nicely to Robertson and he cross for Dan Bailey at the back post and he did the rest.

Having not kept a clean sheet since the start of December, when they beat Thame United 2-0, Bassett were thankful to the crossbar in the second minute of injury time as Nomads’ substitute Matt Woodley’s ricocheted behind.

Bassett put the gloss on the win a minute later when Sam Packer was bundled over and Steve Yeardley stepped up to dispatch the spot kick.

Braithwaite said: “You can’t think about what happened last week.

“We just had to be positive today, not be scared and get on the ball and go forward in numbers and when we defend, defend properly.

“I think the clean sheet was the one of the best thing about this game, but also the reaction. If we had lost 1-0 and played that well I’d be happy.

“But we have to maintain it now. It was very difficult last week, but this was a massive improvement.

Three points, three goals and a clean sheet – long may that continue.

“We knew that Oxford were a good team. We knew that they’d pass the ball well, apparently we don’t – according to them.

“But we knew that we would have to sit in the during first half and we got in at half-time and we knew that we could get something out of the game.”