Men's 1s beat Oxford Hawks to Win Season Opener

Aylesbury Men’s 1s welcomed Oxford Hawks 3s to RAF Halton for the first game of the new season. Aylesbury were coming off the back of a 100% record in preseason and were looking to continue this fine form. Oxford Hawks would be hoping that last year’s good results against Aylesbury would continue into this season. With the absence of both full backs this week, Matt Kiely and Tim Atcheson, Mark Bowes and Ben Ireson would fill the gap in the heart of the defence.

The match started with Hawks having a lot of the possession and within the first five minutes the new look Aylesbury defence was broken through and hit a foot on the Aylesbury goal line and a Penalty stroke was awarded. Aylesbury were let off the hook when the Oxford Hawk’s flick taker missed the chance to put the away team 1-0 up with a miss-hit flick which rolled towards Stephen Best for a simple save. This was a huge wakeup call for Aylesbury who began to come into the game with a couple of real good chances on the counter attack. Austin Greenlee broke through the Hawk’s defence but failed to beat the oncoming Hawks keeper.

Aylesbury finally made the break through with another counter attack. A fantastic 70 yard pass down the left side-line from Graham Thwaites to Austin Greenlee and with some great 3D skill to beat two defenders arrived at top D and smashed the ball passed the Hawk’s keeper. Hawk’s reacted well and came straight down the Aylesbury end and the Hawk’s forward found himself with space in the Aylesbury D but a slight touch off Stephen Best right hand glove and a good touch from Daniel Lindars to take the ball behind and away from the oncoming Hawks forward.

Aylesbury doubled their lead just before half time from a short corner. A hard low flick from Marc Hignell was saved by the Hawks keeper but only into the path of Jim Usherwood who lifted the ball over the keeper. The half time whistle blew with the score at 2-0.
Coach Jaypee Wentzel, highlighted at half time the importance of the third goal in this game and Hawks were aware of this as well as they came out guns blazing at the start of the second half. However, Hawks were caught pushing too many players forward with another neat counter attack, this time down the right side-line. The ball came to Andrew McIntyre and sent a reverse stick shot back across the keeper into the bottom corner. It was Andrew McIntyre who wrapped up the game from a short corner. Another low flick from Marc Hignell was greeted by a defection from Andrew McIntyre to wrap up the result for the A’s.

Although the goal scorers stole the headlines, the Aylesbury Defence held firm under a lot of pressure from the Hawk’s forwards. Ben Ireson and Mark Bowes were rocks all day and didn’t allow Hawks many clear cut chances. But it was Daniel Lindars who was brought out of the midfield to fill in at full back who was voted Man of the Match with a solid performance out of position. Kipper did alright too.

A great start to the new season with a good goal difference to start. Up next week is a trip to Milton Keynes 2s who Aylesbury beat 5-2 in a friendly last week.