Having completed their travels for the season with the long but fruitless trip to Wootton last week, Henley’s beleaguered men’s 3s returned to home soil this week, welcoming South Berks 4s to Jubilee Park for the penultimate game of the season.

With Henley’s subs bench waylaid by an accidental house move, it was set to be a tough day for their bare 11 in the warmest game of the season so, they set out with a focus on their shape and defensive responsibilities out of possession, composure and patience when in possession.

A closely contested and entertaining game followed. In the first half it was evident that South Berks were the more familiar of the 2 sides, spreading the ball around confidently and edging the territory stats, but the Henley full backs of Conway, Nicholson, and Botha defended manfully and were rarely truly troubled in defence. Upon winning the ball, Henley’s central trio of Slay, Newman and Price sought to change direction and play out from the back with a combination of craft and graft, with Henley perhaps edging possession for a spell but struggling to break through the well organised lines of the visitors.

With nothing to separate the 2 sides at half time, they went into the break 0-0 and for Henley, the second half messages were simple – stay organised, keep calm, protect the ball.

The game resumed in a similar fashion to the first, but the visitors struck the first blow about 5 minutes into the half. The South Berks full back slinging a cross-field pass out to the right mid to set off a quick break from which they finished clinically. Buoyed by the breakthrough, the visitors enjoyed a spell in the ascendancy and were getting an infuriating level of joy with that same cross field pass, but Henley continued to defend resolutely and gradually got their pressing organised to cut out those easy passes.

Supported by the tireless running of Batey and Harmer in midfield, henley steadily started to turn the tide their way and get on the front foot. With 10 minutes to go, Tony Conway’s pass found Roberts inside the top of the D, he turned into a flurry of South Berks sticks and limbs and came out the other side with a short corner which Ali Slay duly converted with an arrowed drag click past the helpless keeper. Moments later, Harmer earned the home side another short corner, driving along the touch line from the right to find a foot. Slay came close again but this time his flick narrowly passed the left post.

The game got more stretched as both sides tired in the closing stages and a draw looked increasingly likely but with barely a minute to go, Henley were caught by a sucker punch. An aimless ball forward from the left was assumed to be heading harmlessly off the baseline so the unnoticed forward couldn’t believe his luck when it was left for him to receive the ball unchallenged and round the keeper to secure a 2-1 win for the visitors. Another cruel blow in a season of cruel blows for the 3s, and the result confirms that they will now finish bottom of Division 4 this season.