Men's 1s move top with win against Marlow

On the coldest day of the season so far, Aylesbury faced Marlow 2s at RAF Halton. Marlow 2s were an unknown quantity who were sitting in mid-table with 10 points out of a possible 21. Aylesbury had Marc Hignell returning from 3 weeks away. Ben Ireson also returned to strengthen the back line.

The game began with Aylesbury putting Marlow under high pressure from the push back. Austin Greenlee stole the ball off the Defender on top of the D only to lose his footing and the ball rolled out for a 16. Marlow then settled and starting creating some good attacks for themselves but some good defending kept the score at 0-0. Marlow’s best chance of the half was when Marlow’s young forward broke through the Aylesbury defence but a tackle from Jim Usherwood diving backwards got enough of a touch to push the forward wide and gave Stephen Best in goal enough time to smother the ball.

Aylesbury should have been one up when good work down the left side got the ball to Jake Hodgins whose pace got him round 2 defenders into the D but topped the strike which trickled wide. Aylesbury finished the half with ten players when Austin Greenlee was sent to the sin-bin when he was unable to stop on a slippery pitch and clattered into the back of a Marlow defender when chasing down the ball but Marlow could not capitalise on the man advantage and the half finished goalless.

The Second half began with Marlow pushing for the opening goal with some good passing trying to break down the Aylesbury defence. Again, Aylesbury defence looked to be holding firm until the Marlow forward put the ball across the goal mouth and the Marlow forward put the ball in at the far post to put them 1-0 up.

Aylesbury had come from behind in last three games to take something away from the game so Aylesbury new they were still in with a chance in this game and it was only 3 minutes before they were back on level terms. Aylesbury piled on the pressure and won a short corner. Marc Hignell stepped up under pressure to slot a low drag flick to the keepers left and a slight deflection off a defenders foot put the ball into the net. Aylesbury continued to put pressure on the Marlow goal and within minutes they had gone from 1-0 down to 2-1 up. This time Paul Gregory took a self-pass from a long corner and drove passed 2 challenges to the bass line and smashed a ball across the d at waist height. The ball came straight at Austin Greenlee who managed to react and get his stick in the way of the ball and deflect it passed the Marlow keeper into the goal.

Marlow were not going to go down without a fight in this game. The Aylesbury defence were kept busy. A succession of short corners were kept out firstly by Stephen Best then Matt Kiely. Marlow kept up the pressure on the Aylesbury goal with Aylesbury using the high pressure from Marlow to create chances of their own on the counter attack. A 40 yard ball from Austin Greenlee into the D was met by a diving deflection by Marc Hignell but couldn’t get it passed the keeper. Aylesbury played out the final few minutes with 10 men again when Jake Hodgins asked the umpire if he had come with the opposition. Not a wise move when the yellow card was brandished.

Aylesbury held on to take all three point and with Banbury losing to Milton Keynes, Aylesbury have moved to top of the league. Up next, an away trip to British Airways 1s next Saturday.