Saturday 21st January 2012

After a frozen pitch put paid to the previous week’s local derby against Tring, Aylesbury Mens 1sts entertained Oxford 3rds, who were struggling at the foot of the league. With a strong squad, including 4 substitutes, Aylesbury were full of confidence but despite dominating possession a lack of coherence in their play and an inability to get the ball wide meant their superiority was not translated into goals. In fact it was Oxford who struck first when a hopeful ball up the middle somehow evaded the Aylesbury defence and a mishit fluke sailed over keeper Stephen Best’s head. A very scrappy first half came to an end with Oxford still leading by a single goal.

The half time team talk focussed on getting back to the basics of passing and movement and it was felt the goals would inevitably come. Aylesbury started the second half much brighter and moving the ball quicker began opening up the Oxford defence. However, it was over 10 minutes before Aylesbury finally equalised after a fine run by Ollie Paterson down the right found Austin Greenlee who smashed the ball high into the Oxford goal.  A second was not long in coming when Chris Hunter found space in the D to hit a fine reverse stick strike. Surely with Aylesbury’s dominance the floodgates would open up, but Oxford managed to force a short corner and with a fierce shot into the bottom corner got a surprising equaliser. Within 2 minutes, Aylesbury were ahead again when sweeper Scott Beach surged forward and went past 3 Oxford defenders in their D to slide the ball home.  More chances followed as Beach’s powerful passes were now being picked up by the Aylesbury forwards. Dan Smith scored Aylesbury’s fourth arriving in time at the far post before man of the match Greenlee capped a fine performance with a tap in after a slick passing move.  There was still time for more chances with skipper Paul Gregory guilty of the most glaring miss with his teammates already confidently walking back to the halfway line for the restart!

In the end a comfortable 5-2 victory but with sterner tests to come, Aylesbury can ill-afford more sloppy first half performances.

The Men’s 2nds were the only team in the club to suffer defeat going down 2-1 at Sonning, after leading 1-0 at half time with a goal from debutant Declan Kavanagh.  Sonning’s winning goal, however, came from a hotly disputed penalty flick which no one but the Sonning umpire seemed to think was a penalty.  The Men’s 3rds finally converted their recent good play into a 2-1 victory over Staines 4ths, with goals from Steve Elliott and Josh Penn, while the Men’s 4ths travelled to Harrow 2nds and in an “awesome performance” to quote skipper Mark Collins cruised home 6-0 with goals from Wadell Wilson, Nick Harrison and four(!) from Phill Collins, who also set up the other two goals in an outstanding performance.