Men's 1s win 3-2 against Slough at RAF Halton

Aylesbury Mens 1’s came up against Slough 1’s at RAF Halton in early February. Slough were on a good run of form and had won the last four games scoring 26 goals in that period. Aylesbury had taken 7 points out of a possible 12. This week saw the return of Chris Hunter, Graham Thwaites and Mark Bowes to strength up the squad.

Aylesbury came out the blocks hard at Slough putting the defence under lots of pressure through the forward line of Marc Hignell, Austin Greenlee and Jake Hodgins. Austin Greenlee picked up the ball just outside the D and a skilled run beating 2 defenders only to just narrowly fire his shot wide.

Slough began to start causing trouble for the Aylesbury back line. The two slough forwards created chances with their neat stick stills but were unable to find the target. It was Aylesbury however who broke the dead-lock. Dan Lindars picked up the ball after a miss trap from a short corner, beat two defenders and fired a reverse stick shot passed the Slough keeper.
Slough drew level just before half time through a well worked short corner routine slipped to the left slip for their top goal scorer to fire in his sixteenth of the season firing in at the near post.

The second half started with Aylesbury again taking the game to Slough and Slough playing through their two skilful centre forward on the counter. Slough came close from a short corner but forced a good save out of Stephen Best in goal down to his right. Soon after this, Aylesbury were back in front. The ball was slipped across the D which was met and shot towards goal only to hit a player on the way in back into the path of Austin Greenlee who put the ball in for his seventh league goal of the season.

Aylesbury began to pull away when they scored their third. Paul Gregory cut the Defence open with a pass through to Marc Hignell who beat a player with a neat piece of skill and then found Austin Greenlee to score his second of the game.
Aylesbury faced a nervy end to the game when an identical short corner routine ended in the same result for Slough top scorer making the score 3-2 with 8 minute to play. However, Aylesbury were able to play out the last eight minutes and take all three points from the game.

Aylesbury are now within touching distance of top of the league two point off Milton Keynes on top with a game in hand after Mk’s loss to BA in this round of games. Up next week is an away trip to Phoenix and Ranelagh 1 who sit 10th in MBBO Regional 2.