MATCH REPORT M1 v Witney 2’s

On a chilly but sunny Saturday, Witney 2’s made the trip to Northampton looking to cement their second place in the league in the hope for automatic promotion. But Wootton men’s 1s who don’t have anything to play for had other ideas and would try to put a dent in Witney’s promotion hopes. Wootton welcomed back Ollie after a period of absence to strengthen the midfield and hope to create opportunities for us to go for the win.

The game started well with both sides pushing up the pitch when they had the ball, but the deadlock was broken by Witney with a well worked long corner that found the back of the net. A few minutes later, a huge aerial from Jay managed to bounce through 2 Witney players and found Lee who entered the D, tried to go around the keeper but his feet got stuck and his shot went wide. It remained 1-0 until half time which gave a positive outlook to the huddle as Wootton went back out in the second half searching for an equaliser…

This wasn’t to be as 5 minutes into the second half Witney won a penalty corner which they managed to despatch into the back of the net (0-2). A further penalty corner, saw Witney score on the third attempt at goal in the routine finding the roof of the net. 0-3 now the score. Moments later, Wootton broke into the opposition 25 where Ollie unleashed a reverse shot which deflected off of a Witney defenders foot, but Lee was caught flat footed thinking it had hit a Wootton player, and missed the chance to tap the ball in and the keeper managed to smother the ball. From the resulting PC, Jay drag flicked it to agonisingly onto the post. Another 10 minutes passed and Witney were able to capitalise on a Wootton error and make the score 0-4 going into the final moments of the game. Finally Wootton managed to get a consolation goal from another well aerial by Jay which was brought down well by Ollie winning a free hit as the defender was too close when he received it. He took a quick one and played the ball to Layton who in turn managed to bounce a ball into Lee who controlled the ball, headed towards the baseline and managed to lift the ball into the goal from a tight angle to make the final score 1-4.

Next week Wootton travel to top of the league Abingdon in the penultimate fixture of the season.