Aylesbury grind out result at home to Injury hit Wokingham

After a disappointing trip to Phoenix and Ranlegh last weekend, Aylesbury welcomed Wokingham 1s to RAF Halton. Aylesbury had made a couple of forced changes to the side from last week with Paul Gregory away on holiday and Josh Tomlinson driving a car, Matt Kiely returned after being away for a couple of weeks and Jake Hodgins also returned. Wokingham who were low on number after a few injuries picked up during the season could only bring the bare eleven which Aylesbury would look to use to their advantage during the game.

The game start with Aylesbury putting vast amounts of pressure on the Wokingham side who had set up in a very defensive manor as they new of the big task they faced having to play all 70 minutes without subs. This got worse within the first minute when a Wokingham played was forced off after going over on his ankle.

As to be expected against a ten-man side, Aylesbury were having a lot of the possession but the Wokingham team were defending the D as a unit giving Aylesbury no space in the D. Aylesbury won a couple of short corners but were not able to convert them. Aylesbury looked certain to go 1-0 up when a rash last ditch tackle in the D on Austin Greenlee who had an open goal saw Aylesbury awarded a penalty stroke. Greenlee stepped up to take the flick but was unable to beat the Wokingham keeper.

Aylesbury’s frustration of not being able to find a breakthrough with all this pressure started to show and Aylesbury saw four players carded in the first half for backchat to the umpires. Not a smart move by Aylesbury as it cancelled out the man advantage and at one point had 2 in the cin bin leading to Wokingham having a man over on Aylesbury.

After stern words at half time with the score still at 0-0, Aylesbury cooled down and began to play more passing hockey moving the Wokingham side around and creating chances to open the scoring. Wokingham were back up to full 11 as the player with the injured ankle played through the pain to re-join the action as a target up front.

Aylesbury started to win a vast amount of short corner but were not on point and for the first time this season, did not look like scoring from them. The best chance from a short corner fell to Austin Greenlee after the ball was slipped to Graham Thwaites whose low slap was directed towards goal by Greenlee but a good save from the keeper kept his clean sheet in tacked.

After hard graft Aylesbury finally got some reward. The goal came from a shoddy short corner routine which was deflected by Dan Lindars onto the Wokingham players foot on the line and crept over. Aylesbury had chances to add to their lead but could not stretch it and were in for a nervous last five minutes of the game. Wokingham made a few breakaways but were not able to penetrate the circle and were unable to get a shot away all game.

The game finished 1-0 but Aylesbury felt that they should have taken more chances. However, credit must go to Wokingham on their defensive quality even spend 35 minutes with only 10 players. Next weekend second place Banbury visit RAF Halton. With Aylesbury a point behind in third, it could prove to be a huge result in the promotion race this season. Aylesbury know they will have to up their game and take more of their chances if they are to win next weekend.