Henley Men’s 1s took on Winchester at Jubilee Park on Saturday afternoon searching for redemption after a wet and windy defeat earlier in the season. Player-Coach Rhys Joyce was side-lined with slight knock and Sam Worlidge was unavailable as he was representing Oxfordshire in the Morris Dancing Championships. Thankfully, Kyle Soulsby and Luke Gupta returned to add some athleticism to the team.

Henley started the game brightly, pressing the Winchester back line and creating chances at will. Ed Foster broke the deadlock with a neat finish into the bottom corner. It wasn’t long until Henley found a second through unlikely goal scorer Jeff Joseph, who in an attempt to control Foster’s pass inadvertently scooped the ball over the keeper’s head and across the goal line.

Henley continued to apply pressure and when captain Taylor picked out Shaw with a pinpoint pass from the halfway line, Shaw calmy slotted the ball beyond the Winchester keeper, finally taking on the advice of Coach Joyce to ‘shoot on sight’ to make it 3-0 at half time.

With Henley playing so well, Coach Joyce took midfielders Riches and Gupta off for a half time pint in the Clubhouse. When the three of them returned 10 minutes into the second half, they found Winchester had clawed two goals back and Soulsby in the sin bin for kicking the ball over the Jubilee Park fence.

Riches and Gupta quickly returned to the field but it was the robustness of the defensive back line that kept Winchester at bay; in particular some big hits from Mortimer and Soulsby. With 15 minutes to go, Green received the ball in the D, committed the entire Winchester defence before finding Foster who smashed the ball home to put Henley 4-2 up.

Winchester threw all they had at Henley but the defence stood strong, in particular Sutherland who was tackling each Winchester forward with ease before starting off another Henley attack. However, a cameo for Joseph at left back was met with genuine disgust by Foster who clearly wanted Joseph to stay up field to continue their natural attacking partnership. Henley saw the game out for a 4-2 win, Sutherland deservedly winning his first HHC Man of the Match and duly treated himself and Joseph to a romantic dinner at Café Buendia in town.

Henley travel to old rivals Banbury on Saturday, unbeaten in 5 games with the knowledge that a win would mean leapfrogging Banbury into 4th place. All to play for.

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