Men's 4 s in disappointing draw

Henley traveled to Newbury and Thatcham looking to build on recent solid performances, a narrow 3-2 defeat the previous weekend against table topping Wallingford and victory against 2nd place Sough Berks the weekend before. Henley started sluggishly and a scrappy sequence of tackling close to Henley’s goal resulted in the award of an early short corner for N&T, a simple straight strike slotted firmly into the bottom corner and Henley found themselves a goal begin within 3 mins. The score remained the same until half time largely due to N&T’s goal keeper’s ability to block and deflect everyone Henley’s forwards could throw at him.

Half time was a chance for Henley to regroup and agree that more width would yield more chances... so it was to prove, excellent battling and closing down of N&T’s main play-maker by Josh Barry and Max Hems began to free Henley’s forwards, Tim Cima releasing Andy Farrow for a snap shot to draw level. Solid defence by Adam Warner helped prevent many more opportunities and following a characteristic clearance Adam found Tim Cima, he quickly rounded N&T’s defence and released Andy Farrow for his and Henley’s 2nd. As the game began to get stretched, Ian Rechner found space behind N&T’s defence and drive along the base line, his shop rebounding off the N&T keeper into the path of Andy Farrow who slapped the ball into the net for his and Henley’s 3rd.

With ten minutes remaining, Henley seemed in control, but a series of three late short corners were awarded, from which N&T were able to score twice to draw level. With the failing light the final whistle went to call the game to and end. A frustrating result given Henley’s recovery after being behind so early on and the 2-goal lead with a short period of the game remaining, Henley came to regret the earlier missed opportunities.. a late chance by Tim Cima which clipped the outside of the post more or less summed up the afternoon and a draw was probably a fair result and one in which N&T made the most of their chances.