Henley 4s Secure Promotion

Henley 4s secured promotion with a slightly less than convincing win over local rivals Sonning, and in doing so positioned themselves well for finishing champions with one match remaining.

Henley fielding 5 changes from the previous week started with high intensity and immediately had Sonning on the back foot with strong attacking moves down the flanks exposing potential weaknesses in the Sonning ranks. However, despite numerous openings time and time again the Henley attack failed to find the goal that they deserved. In defence Henley were not troubled, with their keeper not being called upon to make even the simplest of saves.

With the umpires signalling 2 minutes to go, it looked very much like the half would end goalless. Henley however had other ideas, a hopeful ball from Sonning was picked off deep in the Henley half by Neil Emmett who quickly recycled the ball down the left flank to Jules Aplin who set about a mazy run into the Sonning D, beating 2 or 3 desperate defenders he looked odds on the score only to lose control on the P spot, fortunately for Henley Tim Cima was there to mop up and slot the ball into the Sonning goal, thus ending his own dry spell of no goals in 2 games. Even better was to follow when from the restart Tim Cima stole the ball from the Sonning Centre Back and following a slick sequence of passing the ball fell to Andy Green who shot strongly across the keeper to make it 2-0 at half time.

Needless to say the half time talk was now significantly different with the emphasis being on slowing down the game and ensuring that Henley moved the ball around to find the gaps in the opposition ranks.

Half time talk was however ignored! And the game started again at a frenetic pace with Henley wasteful in possession and affording Sonning a sliver of hope. Still however Sonning couldn’t test the keeper with Simon Ward and Adam Warner both looking particularly strong in defence. With time ticking away Sonning did manage to force their way into the Henley D and with the Centre Forward seemingly about to lose control he was bundled over by Neill Emmett leading to the award of a Penalty Flick. The Flick was successfully converted and from a position of comfort Henley now had a nervous 10 minutes to play out.

Relief came in the form of a series of Short Corners the third of which was dispatched coolly by Green with a drag flick into the roof of the net, cue celebrations all round!

Henley now sit top and promoted, with a healthy goal advantage over second placed Slough, a win next week against Oxford should result in ending the season on top and being promoted as Champions which would be a fitting farewell for joint captains Simon Ward and James Lane.

MW