Staines 2nd XI 0 – 3 Sonning 1st XI

Sonning arrived in Staines to find a lake instead of a pitch, and for a short while there was a worry that the game may need postponing, which would be Sonning’s fourth rescheduled fixture of the season. Luckily, Staines’ players had other ideas, and worked tirelessly to get the pitch into a condition that was not only playable, but actually fast and true.

Unfortunately for the home side, on the day, this seemed to suit Sonning pretty much from the off. There was a fluency to their passing game around the back that has been missing at times this season, and Paul Brown and Ollie Waddington moved the ball slickly, creating acres of space on the wings as they stretched their opponents, particularly across midfield, where James Lockhart and Sam Terry on the right wing found plenty of room in which to work, and were able to really dictate play against their opposite numbers, while on the other side, Jonathan Sharp and Matt Sloper did well to shut down Staines’ attacks. Ian Gallagher and Noel Plant worked well up front to create targets, but while they saw plenty of possession, Staines sat very deep and the Sonning front line found themselves a bit outnumbered.

Throughout the half, both sides did have attacking opportunities and penalty corners, but the defences held firm and nothing was converted. In particular the Staines keeper was really aggressive to come off his line, and as well as making some fine saves, he was able to shut down some promising attacks from Gallagher, Plant, and Jimmy Manser. Who all found themselves on the receiving end of some robust but fair challenges.

On the stroke of half time Sonning broke the deadlock, converting a penalty corner with Gallagher striking on the top to be tipped in, by an onrushing David Painter. On this instance, Painter actually didn’t make contact, but his presence was enough to cause an unfortunate Staines defender to turn in the strike past his own keeper. 0-1 at the halftime whistle.

After the break, Staines turned up the heat a bit, and had a spell where they put Sonning thoroughly on the back-foot, but some sterling work by the Sonning back-line helped Rob Merriman keep his clean sheet intact. Eventually Mark Dobbie, Chris Hinton and Dan Anderson managed to regain the Sonning momentum and eventually Sonning doubled their lead, when a through ball found Lockhart, who held up play for long enough to lay a simple pass onto an onrushing Gallagher. Gallagher beat his man to the ball and planted a sweet reverse strike into the open goal. 0-2.

From here, the Staines threat fell away a bit, and Sonning became pretty dominant. With a few minutes to go the game was sealed when some solid play down the left wing found Noel Plant in space, and a 3 on 2 led to Plant feeding Manser, who took his defender and the keeper out of the game well and selflessly put Lockhart in for the simplest of tap-ins on the right post, and he was able to almost walk the ball in. Really good team play. 0-3.

And so it finished, with Sonning putting in one of their best performances of the season to keep their first clean sheet, and go three games unbeaten… Which could genuinely be considered ‘a run of form’ in what has been a tough season to date. Next up however, Sonning host high flyers Oxford 1s, who are themselves looking to keep the pressure on their city rivals Hawks at the top of the pile.

Goalscorers: Ian Gallagher 2, James Lockhart
MOTM: James Lockhart
DOTD: Rob Merriman