Aylesbury 1s draw after a card display from the umpires

Aylesbury Men’s 1s travelled to Woughton-on-the-Green to play Milton Keynes 2s on the second weekend of the season. With these two teams playing each other only two weeks ago in a friendly where Aylesbury came out 5-2 winners, Milton Keynes would be looking to seek revenge.

With three Key players missing from the side it gave chance for Iain McLean to make his first team debut since returning from university this year in the back line. Dan Smith return from working abroad to make his first appearance of the season.
In the first half Aylesbury had a lot of the possession and were controlling the game. Aylesbury had many circle penetrations but were unable to find the first goal. Milton Keynes created a couple of good breakaway chances but they could not create a clear cut chance. Finally, Aylesbury made the breakthrough with a low flick from a short corner from Marc Hignell deflected by Jim Usherwood into the path of Andrew McIntyre where he managed to push the ball just over the Milton Keynes line.

Aylesbury continued to push at the end of the second half but were unable to find that second goal even with two MK players receiving green cards and a two minute sin-bin each but remained one goal to the good at the half time interval.

The second half started with Milton Keynes putting Aylesbury under a lot of pressure but the Aylesbury defence stood firm. As both sides battled hard, the umpires started to try and regain control of the game by handing out yellow cards. Andrew McIntyre made a good challenge which the Milton Keynes player reacted badly to losing his footing and tumbling to the ground comically. In the 6 foot forwards embarrassment thought the best thing to do was to square up and get in face of the 4 foot McIntyre who had already straight away apologies for knocking him, leading to both players receiving a trip to the sin-bin.

The MK skipper broke down the baseline beating two challenges and the ball deflected off Stephen Best’s pads and off the back line. The whistle was heard and Aylesbury turned to see the Umpire signalling a short corner. The umpire must have been the only person in the ground who thought this was a short corner with MK looking as surprised as Aylesbury. This decision ruined what would have been a fantastic win for Aylesbury when the shot rebounded of Stephen Best to a MK forward who managed to get the ball into the goal.

Soon after this more yellow cards were brandished by the umpires as if they were sweets including one for Jim Usherwood for breaking down play. The Umpires battle to get control of the game hit a climax in the last minute with a clean jab tackle by Graham Thwaites on the hot headed Milton Keynes player who had already been yellow carded for reacting badly to a good tackle from Andy McIntyre earlier. Again the MK player did not like being tackle and this time maliciously swiped through Kippers legs after the ball hand rolled off the pitch. The umpires after a long chat only awarded a yellow card which was a huge let off for the Milton Keynes players whose own team mates said he deserved a straight red card.

With the game finishing 1-1 Aylesbury look upon this a huge improvement since last year’s 4-0 thrashing at the hands of Milton Keynes. The look forward to the arrival of West Hampstead 2s at RAF next Saturday.