Henley defeated by London Wayfarers

Henley Men’s first team were back to a full strength side after the Valentine’s weekend hindrance of the previous week and matched up at home to level on points London Wayfarers.

The oldest front line in the history of sport started up front with an average age of 53, David Ralph and Chris Green being wheeled out from the first whistle. Wayfarers started the stronger of the two teams with a long ball being dodged by the Henley team leaving their striker one-on-one with keeper, Cox. The striker put it wide to the relief of Ray Cox.

Wayfarers kept up the pressure early on as it took Henley 10 minutes to get into the game and start stringing some nice passes together. Jeff Goseph had a shot nicely saved by the Wayfarers keeper and a short corner elevated push from skipper Ed Foster was deflected away as the best chances of the first half, the sides went in at 0-0.

Ex-Welshman and Coach Rhys Joyce had lost his voice resulting in the team having a whole five minutes of motivation from interim manager Ian Heggie. Heggie promised much rotation in the second half to cope with the end-to-end style of the match, something Jeff Goseph and Ross Hibberd oddly believed.

The second half was certainly entertaining, both sides going for the win and chances falling thick and fast at both ends. Green saw a good opportunity lost when the keeper closed him down very quickly after a pinpoint Hetherington slap.

Man of Match Roy Cox made one or two half-decent saves to keep Wayfarers out for the bulk of the second half, many of them from short corners, Wayfarers liked to keep runner no. 1 Spam Heaver guessing by passing it directly away from their castle.
The second half grew more stretched and the signs were there for Henley as even a Robbie Mortimer diving last ditch tackle didn’t connect and Rob Rowe foolishly relying on Ray Cox’s acceleration to get him out of trouble.

Later into the half Henley failed to clear the ball and Wayfarers knocked it in. With 5 minutes to go the Interim pulled off Roy Cox before putting him back on immediately. With 2 minutes to go Henley were playing with 11 outfield but couldn’t get that all important equaliser and Wayfarers scored a second on the break into an empty net. The game finished 2-0 to Wayfarers.

Henley have 6 games left and are still sitting in 10th place, with an important trip to Oxford University next week, a win would leap frog them into 9th.