Saturday 20th March 2010

Men's 1st XI

Aylesbury Men's 1st XI: 7 - Eastcote 2nd XI: 3

Aylesbury 1st team managed another fantastic victory against the 3rd placed Eastcote. The 1st XI started off strongly, Austin Greenlee darting into the D before being taken out by the opposition keeper. The Umpire ruled the tackle unfair and awarded a penalty flick, which Greenlee fired into the left side of the net.

Eastcote struck back quickly, but before halftime James Penson brought Aylesbury ahead again. Penson bravely threw himself infront of the keeper to tip in a Paul Gregory hit.

After half-time Aylesbury struck again with an individual piece of brilliance from JP Stevens. Stevens took the ball on the reverse stick and lobbed it over the keeper, who could do naught but flail at the ball as it sailed in.

The Aylesbury skipper Paul Gregory added to the Eastcote misery. A hat-trick for the skipper saw him strike two powerful shots into the goal from short corners, with the third being a clever one-two with Jim Usherwood and a simple push into the corner.

Eastcote struck back twice, once to bring it to 4-2 and again to bring it to 5-3, but they were always trailing against a relentless Aylesbury team. Pete Smyth managed to demoralise the Eastcote attack, batting clear airbourne shots that would have changed the scoreline. A final Aylesbury goal sealed the game at 7-3, a fantastic victory that continues their rise towards a mid-table position

Men's 2nd XI

Aylesbury 2nd XI: 5 - South Bucks 2nd XI: 0

Aylesbury went into this game knowing that they still had an outside chance of promotion. After 4 draws in a row, this was a match that they were keen to find their form from earlier in the season.

Aylesbury weren't helped from being blighted with a number of injuries and so were forced to play a number of players out of position.

Aylesbury started the brighter of the 2 teams, putting together some nice fluid passing through the midfield and around the defence. Aylesbury broke the deadlock after just 5 minutes with a fine individual goal from McClean in central midfield. Aylesbury relaxed after the goal and South Bucks took the initiative and pressed Aylesbury back at every given opportunity. Stephen Best was forced into making a fine diving save midway through the first half, after some good build up play from South Bucks. Aylesbury re-grouped towards the end of the first half, and Peter Atcheson scored a fine individual goal.

Aylesbury upped their tempo from the start of the second half, realising that a third goal would put the match out of reach from South Bucks. It came 10 minutes into the second half after a well worked short corner was finished off by Steve Elliott.

The second half saw a superb defensive display from Aylesbury, Chris Hill and Tim Atcheson providing another solid performance amongst the back four.

Aylesbury had all the possession at this point in the game and were possibly trying too hard to score, adopting a more direct approach than concentrating on width and possession. Despite the change in styles, Aylesbury finished off the match with 2 further fine individual goals from Jake Hodgins, who nearly finished with a hat-trick, but for his last minute shot narrowly missing the post.