Henley 4s Defenders Upstage Attackers

With only one day before Valentine’s love was certainly in the air as Henley were hosted to a friendly match by struggling Phoenix.

With it being a friendly the Henley side decided to experiment and played a game of role reversal as the defence became attack and attack became defence. This left the Henley attack looking rather strange with Nigel Pike, Simon Ward, Jonathan Williams and Graham White all making debuts up top. This gamble seemed to pay off as the new forwards put together a string of passes before Graham White slammed the ball home from the top of the D bewildering the Phoenix keeper with his precision. This marked a memorable occasion for him as he scored one of his few goals in his remarkable 45-year campaign at the club! Once again the silky passing of the forwards made another chance, which Jonathan Williams scrambled home from close range.

Unfortunately, the make shift defence weren’t as good at their new jobs as the forwards as they conceded a goal against the run of play. Henley bounced back within moments as Graham White made another fierce shot, which rebounded off of the goalkeeper and was slapped in by Nigel Pike. Shortly after the Phoenix team got one back, Ewan Watkins made it 4-2 with a great shot from the top of the phoenix D.

After a half time team talk, Henley decided to maintain their structure but, to say this game was of two halves would be an understatement with the second 35 minutes not living up to the first. The only goal of the second half being a breakaway goal from the Phoenix attack and despite promising runs from Philip Biggs and James Lane the forwards were clearly tiring and despite hard work by all the score remained at 4-3 to Henley.

EW