Men's 1s back on for with 5-2 win over West Hampstead

Aylesbury travelled to Brent Cross to face West Hampstead in their second game since the Christmas break. After their first loss of the season last week Aylesbury were looking to bounce back to winning form. Aylesbury were without Chris Hunter, Matt Kiely, Mark Bowes and Graham Thwaites which lead to Aylesbury taking a very youthful side to London.

Aylesbury Began the game strongly with a lot of possession and should have gone 1-0 up early when the ball flashed across the goal to the back post where Austin Greenlee trapped the ball but shot at goal was saved by the West Hampstead keeper. West Hampstead came back into the game in the middle of the first half with some good possession of their own. West Hampstead won a short corner which the initial flick was saved by keeper Stephen Best but only into the path of a West Hampstead forward who controlled the ball Best managed to get in the way of the second shot.

Aylesbury won a short corner of their own and a low drag flick from Marc Hignell was deflected passed the West Hampstead keeper by Dan Lindars for his sixth league goal of the season. A’s were pilling more and more pressure on West Hampstead with James Penson controlling the centre of the park. Aylesbury had a golden chance to double their lead just before half time when Andy McIntyre picked up the ball inside the D and his reverse stick strike flew just over the crossbar. Aylesbury went into the half time interval with their slender lead still in tacked.

Both sides began the second half playing a style which showed both sides new how important the next goal would be in the game. Aylesbury kept up the Pressure on the West Hampstead defence with the forward line of Austin Greenlee, Jake Hodgins and Marc Hignell causing countless issues for the back line. It was top scorer Jake Hodgins who got Aylesbury’s second when he received the ball from Andy McIntyre and beat 2 forwards and slotted the ball passed an oncoming keeper for his eighth of the season.

West Hampstead wont not lie down and came back hard at Aylesbury. A shot from the top D was deflected and looped up over keeper Stephen Best who had to dive backwards and managed to tip the ball onto the post at full stretch which was picked up by a West Hampstead forward who was tackled but the ball could not be cleared out of the D and West Hampstead managed to get the third second rebound in to get back within one goal of Aylesbury. Soon after this Aylesbury managed to regain their two goal lead. Good work by Austin Greenlee down the right baseline beating his defender and put the ball across the D for a simple tap in at the back post for Jake Hodgins second of the game.

West Hampstead came within inches of pulling back to within one goal once again. A short corner routine saw the ball squeeze under Best in goal and two attacked came in to strike into an empty net only for Dan Lindars last ditch dive across the line which saw the ball somehow deflect over the bar from a yard out! Straight from this, Aylesbury broke away from the sixteen and James Penson went through 1-on-1 with the keeper, took it onto his reverse and put the ball passed the keeper into the net to extend Aylesbury’s lead.
West Hampstead did manage to get a second from a short corner. The initial shot was saved but the rebound was put in. Soon after Aylesbury put the game to bed with Austin Greenlee getting a well-deserved goal for himself.

Aylesbury will take great confidence on their return to form a look forward to the visit of Slough to RAF Halton next Saturday.