Following last week’s trip to table toppers Stoke Green 1s, Henley M3’s tough run continued this week with the visit of Wootton’s Men’s 1s to Jubilee Park. Games between the 2 sides over the past few seasons have been close and frantic encounters, with the 2 closing out last season with a 4-4 draw, and this was a similarly tight game despite the 2 currently occupying very different positions in the league.

As would be expected of a 1st team, Wootton have a few skilful players and set up to get those players on the ball as much as possible with very direct play into their forwards. They did this to great effect in the first few minutes of the game, catching Henley cold to win a short corner which they duly converted to take an early lead.

The home side steeled themselves after this early blow though and despite ceding the lion’s share of possession to the visitors, they prevented them gaining any real momentum to extend their lead, with Botha, Nicholson, Conway-Hughes, and keeper Dave Bowyer defending resolutely.

Henley were dealt another blow with the loss of Sam Brown to injury after 10 minutes, leaving them a bare 11 to see out the rest of the game. A shuffle of their pack well was due and as the half wore on, the midfield trio of Alex Price, Ian Bell, and Ed Cary steadily built more of a foothold in the game and the home side strung together some good attacking hockey, with Gordon Merritt in particular coming agonisingly close to equalising before the break.

0-1 it remained at half time, but Henley knew there were chances to get back in this game and they started the second half brightly. After just 10 minutes, the home side were on level terms with Ed Cary finding Ian Roberts in the D to sweep into the bottom left corner.

The joy was short-lived however, as Wootton came out hard from the restart, attacking aggressively and regained the lead in short order with a well taken individual goal - but Henley once again battled back to equalise, with Roberts returning the favour to feed Cary, who stepped past his defender and struck into the bottom right corner for 2-2.

Further chances came and went at both ends in the closing stages of the game, but it was the visitors that claimed the winner with only moments remaining. A chaotic spell in the Henley D that saw several players ending up on the floor, culminated in Richard Nicholson taking a ball to the face on the goal line. Mercifully with no serious damage done, once he had been checked over and guided to the sidelines to get patched up, his nose was adjudged to have prevented a goal and Wootton were awarded a penalty flick, which after a little dancing and stuttering they converted to regain the lead.

Henley resumed with 10 players, and almost immediately lost another as Ted Day who had been one their brightest attacking sparks, took a heavy blow to the foot and could not continue. Battered and bruised, it was too tall an order for Henley to find another equaliser and the game finished 2-3.