Men’s 3s were looking to get back to winning ways after a 4-0 loss to Abingdon last week. The visitors to RAF Halton were Leighton Buzzard 3s who were bottom of the table at the start of the day.

Aylesbury started incredibly fast and found themselves 1-0 up in the first five minutes. The first short corner of the day was dispatched by Phil Collins for his first goal since return from injury as his flick snuck past the Buzzard keeper. Aylesbury were pegged back shortly after however when Leighton Buzzard won their first short corner of the game and the Buzzard midfielder dispatched the dragflick past Best on the post to level the tie. Stanley Baughan had a good chance to regain the lead when he picked up the ball on the left hand side, beat his marker but just fired a shot just the wrong side of the near post.

However, the scores were not level for long as another short corner was dispatched by Collins identical to his first of the game to give the lead back to Aylesbury. After this goal, it was one way traffic. The third was added when really good work down the right from Stanley Baughan create space for himself who put a wonderful ball across the circle for Ed Gurney to deflect the ball into the net. Aylesbury would add three more before half time. Firstly a similar goal to the third was created by Chirs Hunter and cooly deflected in by James Harrington from midfield. They Hunter became scorer with a well worked short corner routine which saw a good passing move between Hunter and Mike Smith saw Hunter have time to pick his spot and slot the ball into the net for 5-1. Collins was then able to complete his hatrick. Aylesbury worked a 16 wide to Best who played a line ball to Gurney. Gurney controlled, drew the defender and slotted in Collins who picked his spot and fired the ball past the Buzzard keeper to complete the first half scoring which ended 6-1.

The first 25 minutes of the second half went a similar way with frequent goal for Aylesbury. Chris Hunter made it seven with an identical goal to his first. Another short corner lead to Stanley Baughan getting on the score sheet with a tidy deflection on the far post to make the score 8-1. Phil Collins would add and ninth and his fourth of the game this time with good work down the right hand side on the counter attach where he fired a strong strike into the goal. Best would complete the scoring when a rebound off the keeper from another short corner fell nicely for him to slot the ball into the goal for Aylesbury’s tenth.

Leighton Buzzard finished the game on the front foot and had most of the possession and chances in the final 10 minutes of the game. However they were unable to beat Barnes in the Aylesbury goal and strong defending from the back line of Mike Battye, Ben Husbands, Stephen Best and Skipper Stuart Moseley kept Buzzard and bay. Their best chance of the second half came from their second corner of the game which was slipped back to the injector on the post but Best managed to scramble the ball away.

A good way to bounce back from the disappointment of last week’s defeat. Up next weekend, a visit from League leaders Oxford Hawks.