Brilliant brace bagged by “Backpost Barrass”

Two magnificent strikes from hugely talented and prodigious goalscorer Tim Barrass marked a superb comeback for Henley 3rd team, who overcame a 2-0 first half deficit to defeat Bicester 2nds 4-2.

Though sporting a strong starting lineup at Jubilee Park, Henley looked lethargic and disordered from the start. Bicester took full advantage of their listless performance, fighting hard for the ball and attacking on the break with a dangerous aerial ball, resulting in two deserved goals for the visitors.

Rallying at half time, Henley showed great character to regain the composure and style of recent weeks, and proceeded to turn the game on its head in the second half.

With every player increasing effort levels and the whole team working much more effectively as a unit, Bicester struggled to maintain the possession they enjoyed in the first half.

This increased effort level can be best illustrated by a specific example. Tracking an attacker wobbling into the Henley 25 on a dangerous break, centre back Rowan Austin called for cover and almost needed to then call for the defibrillator with the shock of seeing Sam Brown (yes, Sam Brown) sprinting (yes, sprinting) back with lightning pace and ferocious determination from his centre forward position to mop up the Bicester attack. Incredible scenes.

With a muscular contribution from Bodeker, the defence organised themselves to snuff out the danger of the aerial ball. Jack Draycott and James Baker dominated in the centre of midfield. The forwards hunted as a hungry pack and put Bicester under a huge amount of pressure, both in possession and when chasing the ball.

However the catalyst behind Henley’s resurgence was the sensational Ian Heggie, who masterminded the home side’s counterattack from right back with flair and great composure. After a pretty woeful first half, mind you.

Heggie clearly found Mike Woolfrey’s abusive barracking from the sidelines highly motivational. Woolfrey, trying to distract Heggie from his game as he targets a comeback in a position believes to be his own, was visibly and volubly disgusted with every successful pass and tackle executed by the rampaging Heggie.

Responsible for creating many of Henley’s chances, the hugely skilful Timothy Herbert marauded up front and proved to be impossible for the Bicester defence to cope with. Understandably struggling slightly to rouse himself for the unreasonably early 3pm pushback time, Timothy nonetheless opened the home side’s account with a superb interception of a long ball, followed by a delicate and impeccable reverse stick finish over the oncoming goalkeeper.

Henley looked increasingly dangerous in the Bicester area and began to create a wealth of opportunities. However, many of these chances went begging, the ball flying past the Bicester goal untouched. Julian Herbert, consigned to the bench with a niggling injury, was enraged at the profligacy in front of goal and regularly exploded in cries of “expletive deleted expletive deleted POST UP!”.

However this call did not fall on deaf ears. The perfect man to rally to the “expletive deleted expletive deleted POST UP!” call is the exceptional and highly unique Barrass, given his typical effective lethal range is a bit like that of a blunderbuss - between zero and 18 inches from target. Arguably not the most refined of attacking weapons (perhaps unlikely to be scoring a whammy into the top corner from a narrow angle) Barrass stuck to his goal-post comfort zone, striking twice with tremendous finishes from point blank range.

Baker then added a fourth from a well-worked penalty corner. This left the visitors deflated, and flagging in energy from the electric pace of the game Bicester were unable to manage a single shot on goal in the second half. To the notable relief of goalkeeper Mike Cordrey.

With a fifth successive league victory, Henley remain at the top of the table with some key fixtures in the coming weeks.

Henley 3rds – M Cordrey, R Austin, T Bodeker, J Draycott, J Rechner, J Herbert, J Baker, J-J Cottam, S Brown, T Barrass, T Herbert, L Packham, I Heggie.