Herbert, Herbert and Herbert secure three points for amber and blues...

Maintaining their superb start to the league season, Henley 3rd team travelled to north Oxfordshire and secured yet another three points with a win against Witney 2nds.

The victory came thanks to a magnificent effort from the Herbert family – father Julian and sons Timothy and Matthew all marking tremendous individual performances, scoring four goals between them.

Lacking some key players from recent weeks, Henley’s squad has strength in depth and so the visitors were able to play with typical style and high tempo from the very start, playing attacking and aggressive hockey, constantly harrying the opposition and building fluid attacking moves.

The visitors looked particularly dangerous on the right, with Witney having no answer to the skill, pace and accuracy of Timothy Herbert, Matthew Herbert and newcomer Rob Blair.

Given excellent support from the industrious midfielders (marshalled by impressively-engined Julian Herbert), the skilful Henley forwards were quickly marauding in the Witney area.

The inevitable opening goal came from Sam Brown, who pounced on a loose ball in front of the Witney goal. The second came soon after, with Julian Herbert unleashing a breathtaking bullet-like flick from a short corner leaving the goalkeeper with no chance.

Brown then scored his second with a neat finish following a superlative move down the left from the increasingly impressive James Rechner. Timothy Herbert, brilliant throughout at right wing and lethal in the Witney area, then scored two goals in quick succession.

Reeling from the Henley onslaught at 5-0 down, Witney could have collapsed but instead managed to recover impressively. Relaxing a shade too much with the comfort of their lead, Henley decided to make the game a bit more exciting and so started playing deeper and eased off the pace, enabling the home side to creep back into the game.

Scoring one goal before the interval, Witney then scored another three after the break to take the score to 5-4.

However, belatedly finding a solution to defending against a very dangerous aerial ball from the Witney back line, and with Austin politely explaining to goalkeeper Cordrey that the purpose of the big foamy bits is to interfere with the path of a goal-bound ball, the amber and glues decided that enough was enough, and found their composure to reassert their authority and remove the sting from the Witney counterattack.

Ian Rechner netted following yet another inspired move down the right initiated by Blair, and Matthew Herbert took the score to 7-4 with a brisk low flick from a short corner, finally enabling Henley to breathe a sigh of relief in the final minutes before full time.

Henley 3rds – M Cordrey, R Austin, T Bodeker, R Blair, J Herbert, T Herbert, M Herbert, J Rechner, I Rechner, S Brown, T Barrass, L Packham, J Draycott