THREE fine penalty saves from goalkeeper Kieran Greene saw Basingstoke Town Academy beat Kingstonian 5-4 on penalties in the Youth Alliance League Cup, writes Charlie Dear.

The home side were 2-0 up midway through the first-half, before a Kingstonian fight back saw them level it 2-2.

Less than 48 hours after Basingstoke Town Jason Bristow had secured an FA Cup replay with Telford in the FA Cup, he was again overseeing a cup game at The Soccer AM Stadium, this time as the academy boss.

The home side struck first as Aaron Jarvis latched onto a poor kick by the Kingstonian goalkeeper and rolled the ball across for George Hallahan to net.

The young Dragons could have been further ahead as Jarvis’s shot hit the crossbar.

The lead was doubled on 38 minutes, as Ben Blackwell charged down the right flank, easily outmuscling the opposing left back, before he drilled a shot past goalkeeper Lewis Griffin.

Just before the break, the visitors hauled themselves back into the contest and on the 55 minute mark they equalised.

Both teams had chances to win the game, Ibrahim Meite sent a curling effort just wide, whilst Blackwell saw his corner hit the top of the cross bar as penalties loomed.

Kingstonian scored their first four spot kicks and could have won the game, but Greene saved Junior Osei-Tutu’s effort.

Two more impressive stops by the 18-year-old shot stopper allowed midfielder Sushant Magar to send Basingstoke into the next round.

After the game goal scorer Ben Blackwell said: “We should have taken our chances in the first half and been out of sight. After they levelled things we had to work and dig in to wrestle the momentum back.”