Sonning 1st XI 3 - 3 Old Merchant Taylors 1st XI

Sonning arrived for their second game in MBBO 1, after their recent promotion, in the lavish setting of Old Merchant Taylors school; a pre-season with 2 wins and 1 draw, and taking a point at home to Maidenhead last week leaving them confident, but still hoping to improve in a new formation, and with a couple of new and returning faces bedding in well.

The mind games began early, with a clever warm-up strategy by the home side. The watering system for their top of the range (and quite delightfully surfaced) pitch prepares one half, then the other, in a long cycle that seems to last at least 15 minutes. Of course, the home side's turf was watered first, meaning that OMT had an uninterrupted warm up, while Sonning's was makeshift and shortened, on standing water and under the powerful water jets!

This apparently had quite an effect on the visitors' efficacy in the opening exchanges. Firstly, the usually dependable duo of Manser and Gallagher were unable to convert a couple of half-chances, with the keeper saving well from Manser, before Gallagher sent a loose ball into the cheap-seats behind the goal! Next, an off-the-pace Chris Hinton was at fault for an early OMT goal, lazily strolling over his own 25m line with possession, and into the two waiting flat-sticks of the OMT midfield. They punished him for his insolence after winning the ball, with a first time pass into the path of their centre forward, who took his chance expertly, leaving Merriman in goal with no chance. 0-1.

Sonning's deficit was doubled within a couple of minutes, with another well taken chance from an OMT forward. Some excellent attacking play ended with an OMT midfielder reverse striking cleanly. Merriman could only pad this away to an onrushing forward, and could do nothing with the follow up strike, which was tucked away calmly. 0-2 with 10 minutes played.

Sonning began their comeback after around 20 minutes. James Lockhart was able to win a penalty corner after driving into the OMT circle before turning the ball onto the planted foot of a defender. This was converted expertly by a well rehearsed routine. Paul Brown's excellent injection, stopped precisely by Sam Terry, before Hinton unleashed a perfectly timed flick onto the stick of the diving Jack Mason in front of the right post. The ball struck the OMT crossbar before nestling in the roof of the net, and the keeper had absolutely no chance. 1-2.

Back in the game, Sonning saw out the rest of the half well, and in the second half, the turnaround appeared to on the cards. Sonning created plenty of opportunities, and saw their opponents' previously fluent attacking play stutter, with a full court press aggressively shutting down attacks before they could begin. Then, against the run of play, the unthinkable happened and the two goal deficit was restored. OMT won a penalty corner from nothing, and their initial routine appeared poor. Their drag-flicker put a weak effort low and onto Merriman's pads. He was able to smother the ball well, but conceded another corner after trapping the ball in his pads. This time the OMT routine sprung into life! Their drag flicker sold Sonning the same flick as before, shaping to go low, before unleashing an absolute cannon into the roof of the net which the grounded Merriman could only watch. To be fair, not many keepers could have stopped it. 1-3.

Once again, Sonning had 2 goals to regain parity in the contest, and they executed with aplomb, with 2 quick-fire goals. First, Gallagher received a heavy stick tackle after some quick hands in the OMT circle, and the resulting corner was flicked, hard and low, by skipper Steve Ridley. The OMT keeper padded it away, but with lightning reflexes, injector Paul Brown hit a first time strike out of the air and into the net. Three men on the line, including Jimmy Manser could pretty much only pray that it didn't hit them, and the back of the net nearly tore off, while the visitors celebrated! 2-3.

The game was levelled almost immediately, after Manser won a corner cleverly off a defender's foot. Sonning executed another well worked and rehearsed routine, with Brown once again the man; finishing of a well worked routine at the left post. This was more controlled, but just as crisply executed as his first, with a flick across goal into the backboards. 3-3.

The game opened after for Sonning briefly in the following exchanges. Unlike last week where both teams seemed to settle for a point, this week both sides had obviously targeted this fixture as an opportunity for 3 points, and appeared intent on going for the jugular. The game then turned a bit scrappy, and Sonning saw themselves down to 10 men for the second week running. This time it was Ollie Waddington who saw yellow with around 5 minutes remaining, 'taking one for the team', by putting in a cynical challenge on an OMT player as he attempted to break from deep with several options ahead of him. Waddington never had a chance to win the ball cleanly, and left the umpire with no choice but to reach into his pocket.

This seemed to kill Sonning's chance in the game, as they sat deeper and deeper against an onrushing tide of black and orange. While last ditch defending and some missed opportunities kept the score level. This pattern continued until the last minute, until from nowhere Sonning broke through the tireless David Painter. He beat his man well on the right wing, before finding Lockhart on the P-Spot, who had quickly made up the length of the pitch to join the attack. Frustratingly, his poor and tired looking pass could not find Manser at the back post, and the chance went begging, just before the full time whistle blew.

So, Sonning missed out on the chance for 3 points, but over the course of 70 minutes, can be happy with another bullish and resilient display! Next up is a 3pm home fixture against Staines 2nd XI, who started the season with a 4-0 home win to Chiswick, before losing to Maidenhead 2-0 in their second game.

COTN!

Goalscorers: Paul Brown 2, Jack Mason
MOM: Paul Brown
DOD: Jimmy Manser