Men's 4s in convincing win after a slow start

Another convincing win away from home promoted Henley to a league high of 5th place with just 3 games left in the season.

The game started positively for the Amber and Blues, and Martyn Watkins was unlucky not to score in the first 2 minutes as his snap shot was very well saved by the Oxford keeper. Oxford quickly turned defence to attack and caught out the Henley defence who seemed to have not switched on so early in the game and a simple cross field pass found a Oxford player un-marked and able score easily.

The early set back rocked Henley into action and slowly they began to take control, but try as they might they couldn't find a way past the excellent Oxford keeper who made a string of top class saves from multiple Henley attacks. Henley were now camped in the Oxford 25 and finally managed to force a breakthrough with a scrambled goal from Jules Aplin to equalise. From the restart Henley again pressed and the ball fell to Phil Biggs whose shot from the top of the D found the corner of the goal to give the visitors a 2-1 lead at half time.

The second half continued as the first had finished with Henley fully in control and attacking the Oxford goal. The number of saves from the Oxford Keeper was now becoming a real frustration for the Henley attackers. Finally the fortress was breeched and Tim Cima scored 2 goals in quick succession following patient build up play and good passing to stretch the opposition defence.

Oxford were not surrendering however, and managed to force their first short corner of the game, from which a goal bound shot struck Ian Rechner on the foot for a penalty to be awarded. The Oxford skipper duly scored to make it 4-2 with 10 minutes to go. Rechner spurred by his indiscretion pushed forward and took the ball deep into the Oxford D where he unselfishly passed to Aplin to finally put the game beyond Oxford. With the clock ticking down Cima completed his hat-trick with the goal of the game, jinking into the D beating 3 defenders and sliding the ball past the keeper.

A strong performance from Henley and a good reflection on the season to date.