Henley victorious in local derby

On Saturday 31st January Henley travelled to local rivals Marlow, hoping to maintain their seven point lead at the top of the Southern Premier 2 table. Marlow have a strong home record this season, therefore Henley knew this would be a tough match and this proved to be the case from the outset.

Henley weren’t helped by an injury in the warm up to Rhys Joyce, and the opening exchanges were very frantic, resulting in two yellow cards in the first 8 minutes for Henley, meaning they were down to 9 players in the early exchanges. This resulted in almost full Marlow possession, as the away side backed off and tried to maintain a good shape until they were back to 11 men. Despite all their possession and territorial advantage, Marlow were unable to break down the well-drilled and determined Henley nine, and against the run of play it was Henley who took the lead. A fine long range pass from Mani Kochar found Ross Hibberd in space on the right wing, who showed some lovely skills to win a short corner. Following a good save from a David Ralph drag-flick, and an Ed Foster follow up, it was eventually Tom Walter who calmly slotted the ball past the Marlow goal keeper, to score his first goal for the amber and blues.

Once Henley were back to 11 players the game become much more of an even contest, with Henley looking dangerous on the break, whilst Marlow still dominated possession. The half-time score possibly flattering Henley, who had been under the cosh for most of the first half, yet they lead 1-0.

In the second half, Henley took the game by the scruff of the neck and started to play some nice hockey. The forward pairing of Green and Gupta started causing Marlow problems and Henley doubled their lead 10 minutes into the second half, through Chris Green, who smashed home a half volley, after he was found by a nice pass from Jonny Taylor.

Henley then added a third goal through Geoff Joseph, who was on hand to lift the ball over the Marlow goal keeper after Ed Foster’s drag-flick was saved on the line from a short corner attempt. Although Marlow were still full of running, and had some skilful young players, they rarely threatened Roy Cox in the Henley goal, however on the two occasions in the second half when Cox was called upon, he made fine saves to keep the score at 3-0.

Marlow were eventually rewarded for their efforts and scored a late consolation goal from a short corner, however it was too little too late, as Henley ran away 3-1 winners in the derby clash. Not Henley’s finest performance skill-wise, but it was certainly determined and another brilliant team effort.