Two avoidable first half goals were enough to give Fairford Town their second Hellenic League Division One West victory of the season on a disappointing afternoon at Bassett Road.

With Des Williams in charge of the side we recalled Dan Hoskin to the starting side up front and partnered him with Paul Farrell as we went in search of some much needed goals. Elliott Harper also started his first game for the club with Matt Pill's hip injury ruling him out, Alex Thomas started on the wing and Ross Packham was rewarded with some great displays for the Reserves with his senior Letcombe debut.

The match started in competitive, end to end fashion and our keeper Danny Joyce made a great reaction save to deny Fairford a seventh minute opener. Marshall's drive was really well blocked by Danny who is as good a shot stopper as you'll see in our league.

At the other end of the ground, Ross Packham showed great invention on his debut to pick out Tom Stone on the back post. Stone's header dropped to Alex Thomas who volleyed narrowly wide of the mark.

We went close again on 20 minutes when Tom Stone's pin point free kick found the head of Jack Hamblin who met it powerfully, but the ball went over the crossbar from 10 yards.

It was against the run of play that Fairford took the lead, but there was no doubt that the goal gave them a real foothold in the match and their confidence visibly increased. The opener came on 28 minutes when Matt Clark missed a clearance at the back post and Ballard fired the ball beyond Danny Joyce and into the net.

The goal gave the visitors new belief and they kept the ball well in the minutes following. We were grateful to Danny Joyce who pulled off a fine 41st minute save from Allen to keep it a 1-0. Danny could do nothing about their second goal though, an Allen penalty, after a foul in our box from young Ross Packham.

We altered our shape at the break but we couldn't hold the ball up front. This allowed Fairford to get on the ball and they continued to create chances. The referee turning down a 50th minute claim for a penalty, judging Danny Joyce's intervention to be fair.

We made a double change on the hour with Howard Hawkins and Marc Merritt replacing Matt Clark and Ross Packham. Ross did well on debut and showed real promise.

Danny Joyce made another great save on 71 minutes when Ballard's long range free kick was superbly tipped onto the crossbar by our keeper.

We showed some attacking invention on 79 when Tom Stone and Elliott Harper linked up to feed Dan Hoskin. Hoskin burst into the box and curled his effort wide of the mark. Alex Thomas also beat his full back late on but was tackled with payers well placed in the middle.

Fairford carved out late chances with Joyce denying Stratford on 87 minutes. Thomson hit the post and Hall stabbed wide as Fairford searched for a deserved third goal.

It was another case of Letcombe lacking the guile in the final third to get a goal. We made life hard for ourselves by conceding and Fairford gave a very assured display to see the game out. Elliott Harper and Ross Packham did well on their first starts and Sam Dickens kept trying to drive forward from full-back but overall we didn't do enough to test our visitors.

With a change first team management chance on the horizon, Letcombe know there is much work to do as we head in to the important November fixtures.

Letcombe: 1. Danny Joyce, 2. Matt Clark (16. Marc Merritt 60), 3. Sam Dickens, 4. Jack Hamblin, 5. Jon Hanson, 6. Elliott Harper, 7. Tom Stone (c), 8. Ross Packham (14. Howard Hawkins 60), 9. Paul Farrell, 10. Dan Hoskin, 11. Alex Thomas.