Henley 5s only just defeated by a strong Thame 3 squad

Henley Mens 5th XI played their seventh league match of the season against Thame 5 on Saturday 10th November 2018 home at Jubilee Park.

Having won the pushback, a strong Thame made a swift start pushing high up in to Henley’s half, immediately putting their defence and goalie under pressure. Within a matter of minutes, a long Thame ball made it clean through Henley’s defence and to their centre-forward who put it past the goalie and against the back board. Adapting to the visiting teams game play, the home team managed to defend against a couple more incoming offences, but Thame’s second goal inevitably materialized before the end of the first half of play.

Having made a couple of tweaks to the formation, Henley started the second half on a much stronger footing. Using the full width of the pitch enabled then to advance up in to Thame’s half to take greater command of the game. Henley created opportunities through some great game play by David Corke, Jon Grocock and colts Henry Davis, Toby Phillips, Louis Poundall; each giving Thame the run around inside their 25 yard area but the goal remained elusive. Henley’s fortunes turned when a great ball from defender Nick Shuttleworth, found its way in to the right side of the D and on to the stick of forward Ben Williams, who with a clean strike, sent the ball in to the top right corner of Thame’s goal, taking the score to 2-1. Heartened by their goal, Henley pushed up high in to Thame’s half and had a couple of close attempts at scoring an equalizer in the closing 15 minutes of the match but eventually time ran out.
Final score Henley 5s (1 – 2) Thame 3. Congratulations to David Corke who was voted man of match.

Team Members: Tom Grocock (Goal), Jon Grocock, Nick Shuttleworth, Piers Edgell (Captain), Toby Phillips, Henry Davis, Ben Williams, Fergus Heggie, Duncan Gray, Alan Mortimer, David Corke, Louis Poundall, Martyn Watkins.