Henley 5s v Wootton 3s (Wanderers)

Henley Mens 5th XI played their twelfth league match of the season on Saturday 15th December 2018, against top of league London club, Wootton Wanderers.

With most other fixtures league finished for Christmas, each team arrived at Jubilee Park with at full team of eleven plus a bench of four substitutes; intent on working players hard to help secure a win.

The match started quite balanced with equal possession of the ball from both teams. Despite some solid offences down the wings and in to the D by Henley, it was the visiting team who were first to score with a break down the centre, followed by a pass to their right wing who tucked an accurately aimed ball just inches inside the right goalpost. Shortly after this, Wootton followed this with a second goal scored from a short corner. As the weather conditions worsened and the rain intensified, Henley found their game and some great positional play and accurate passes culminated in two goals being scored in the period up to half time.

With the score 2-2 at half time and Henley had absolutely everything to play for. The visiting side had discovered that Henley 5 was not going to be as quite as easy to overwhelm as some of their earlier opponents in the season. Henley had held the larger share of possession in the first half and had created numerous very close opportunities to score, but also failed to capitalise. The tempo of the game increased in the second half as both teams fought to secure victory with both teams looking equally matched. Wootton then edged ahead scoring a third goal and dampening Henley hopes of victory. Despite this setback, Henley battled on and earned themselves a third goal to equalize in the closing quarter of the game. Both teams slogged it out in the final minutes of the match and a draw looked like an inevitable outcome, when Henley’s hopes were dashed in the blink of an eye. A lone Wootton player made a charge, hotly pursued but two Henley defenders, in to 25 yard area and in to the D. Slipping over on the sodden astro, the Wootton player fell to the ground and picking himself up, he managed a reverse stick chop sending the ball just inside the left post, on to the Henley goal backboard. Final score Henley 5s (3 – 4) Wootton Wanderers