Disappointing draw for Men's 4s

Henley 4s fought out a disappointing draw with bottom of the table Wallingford at Jubilee Park, in freezing conditions on Saturday. In what was probably one of their poorest team performances of the season this was a case of 2 points dropped rather than 1 gained by the Amber and Blues.

Henley started poorly and were unable to make any progress into attacking positions with too many attempts to penetrate the Wallingford 25 floundering on strong opposition Centre Backs as Henley time and time tried to force their way through the middle.

Finally, the lesson was learnt and the ball began to get spread wider to the wings. One attack resulted in Simon Ward forcing his way in to the D along the touchline, which showed the route to goal. Building on this approach James Lane quickly followed suit, got to the touchline and squared for Ewan Watkins to slot home for the opening goal.

Wallingford doubled their efforts and began to make forays into the Henley half, and put pressure on the home team. Keeper Neil Emmett was called upon to make some through ball clearances but was never really tested, until the award of a Long Corner which was quickly taken, the ball was brought into the D and a shot deflected off a Henley Stick into the roof of the net leaving Emmett grasping at thin air.

Henley pushed forward again and were rewarded with another attack down the right wing and another cross this time from Simon Taylor found Phil Biggs who beat the keeper to make it 2-1 at half time.

Henley started the second half well using the width to provide good outlets for the mid field but meaningful attempts on goal were not forthcoming, and again they reverted back to the earlier approach of trying to find a way through the more solid middle of the Wallingford defence with zero success.

Wallingford were now in ascendance building on some sloppy play from Henley and managed an equaliser when the Henley defence were caught napping and an early cross field ball found a Wallingford stoker unmarked to easily score. With the clock ticking down it was the visitors who looked the more likely to score, but with real goal scoring chances being at a premium both sides played out the game and settled for a point a piece.